Uhuru sister sues in Sh3m debt row

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s elder sister has returned a former captain of Karen Country Club, Richard Thande, to court for failing to repay a Sh3 million debt.

Kristina Pratt, in papers filed at the Milimani Commercial Courts in Nairobi, says Mr Thande has once again breached a repayment deal reached last September, prompting the latest court action and appointment of Moran Auctioneers to pursue the debt.

Mr Thande, however, protested the suit, urging the court to dismiss it.

“The defendant will raise a preliminary objection that the entire suit should be struck out on the grounds that it time-barred,” he said.

Mr Thande is hinging his objection on the Limitation of Actions Act, which demands that a contractual dispute be brought to court within six years.

The businessman owed Ms Pratt a soft loan of Sh5 million. Last September, he paid Sh2 million and promised to stagger the remaining Sh3 million within six months.

Ms Pratt, through her lawyer Eddy Orinda, said Mr Thande had breached the repayments terms.

Mr Kenyatta’s kin first went to court last year after the businessman failed to honour a repayment deal reached on November 2011 that directed the businessman to make monthly payments of Sh20,000 to clear the debt.

“The plaintiff (Ms Pratt) avers that the defendant (Mr Thande) has since entering the agreements only paid a sum of Sh20,000,” says Ms Pratt in September court documents.

“The plaintiff further avers that despite numerous requests and demands in the month of June 2018 to the defendant to refund the remaining sum of Sh4,980,000, the defendant has declined to settle the same.”

The monthly repayment of Sh20,000 meant Mr Thande would have taken 250 months or 20 years to clear the debt on the assumption it was lent interest-free.

Ms Pratt, 68, wants the court to compel Mr Thande to shoulder the costs of the suit.

Court documents did not reveal the dealings between Mrs Pratt and Mr Thande.

Ms Pratt chairs the National Fund for the Disabled of Kenya since 2002 when former President Daniel arap Moi appointed her to the position.