Nairobi High Court rejects Kiru Tea Factory bid to join Citibank loan probe

The High Court in Nairobi has dismissed an application by Kiru Tea Factory Company Ltd to join a legal case involving Citibank N.A. Kenya. The case centers on a criminal investigation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) into a disputed US$2.02 million loan from March 2021.

Kiru Tea Factory, which is managed by the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and owned by farmers, sought to be included as an interested party. The factory chairman, Geoffrey Chege Kirundi, alleged that the board never authorized the facility and that the company’s funds were used to repay the loan and interest despite the factory claiming it neither received nor used the money. The factory noted that the investigation affects more than 8,000 smallholder tea growers.

The judge ruled that Kiru had not demonstrated that its exclusion would prejudice its interests or that it possessed information unavailable to state investigators. Citibank has challenged the legality of the DCI's investigation into how the loan was approved, disbursed, and transferred.