The owner of the 14 Riverside complex, home to the DusitD2 Hotel in Nairobi, has suffered another legal setback after the Court of Appeal declined a request to halt the planned auction of the property in an ongoing dispute with a creditor.
The appellate court also turned down Cape Holdings’ proposal to have the property sold through a private treaty, with the proceeds placed in an interest-earning account while accounts and outstanding debts to Synergy Industrial Credit Ltd, I&M Bank, and other lenders were reconciled.
In its ruling, the court stated that the matters raised by the company had already been litigated up to the Supreme Court, leaving no grounds for the appellate court to revisit decisions that had previously been settled. It noted that the decree issued in March 2021 in favour of Synergy Industrial Credit was based on an arbitral award that had withstood challenges at every level of the judicial system.
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The judges further observed that issues relating to interest, limitation, and the calculation of the debt had either been directly addressed or should have been raised during earlier challenges to the arbitral award. The court said such matters could not be revived at the execution stage or reframed as new legal questions, concluding that the arguments presented were not arguable.
A three-judge bench also pointed out that the High Court had already paused the sale temporarily to allow for a fresh valuation and the issuance of new warrants. It added that there was no evidence suggesting that the process was being conducted outside the authority or supervision of the High Court.
Cape Holdings had moved to the Court of Appeal in December 2025, arguing that the High Court erred by declining to revisit earlier decisions in a way that prevented a review of accounts under Section 34 of the Civil Procedure Act. The company claimed the refusal effectively denied it justice.
The firm further argued that the debt claimed by the creditor had ballooned significantly due to what it described as excessive and unproven interest. According to Cape Holdings, Synergy Industrial Credit had initially advanced deposits amounting to about Sh577 million. Even by its own calculations, the company argued that the total would reach roughly Sh1.4 billion without applying the in duplum rule, yet the creditor was seeking more than Sh10 billion.
