Directors of East African Breweries Limited (EABL) and its parent company Diageo face multi-billion shilling fines after being accused of disobeying a Supreme Court order on a beer supply contract.
The brewer’s former supplier, Bia Tosha Distributors Ltd, wants the directors to be fined an equivalent of 20 percent of EABL’s sales, or Sh39 billion, for refusing to give it back beer distributorship routes in parts of Nairobi, Machakos and Kajiado.
The Supreme Court last month ordered EABL to reinstate Bia Tosha on the contested routes following a suit that has dragged in court since 2016.
Bia Tosha told the Supreme Court that EABL has ‘sponsored’ the present distributors to sue at the High Court in a bid to derail the implementation of the apex court’s order.
“The respondents have acted with reckless abandon and with total contempt for the authority of this court, have continued to infringe upon the applicant’s distribution areas,” Anne-Marie Burugu, managing director of Bia Tosha, says in documents filed in court.
“…That the respondents upon conviction for the contempt, be condemned, individually and collectively, to pay a fine equivalent to 20 percent of their individual gross company turnovers as reflected in their respective 2021-2022 published accounts.”
Ms Burugu further wants the country’s top court to compensate Bia Tosha more than Sh1 billion for the losses suffered in the seven years EABL has kept it out of the beer distribution business.
The long-running court battle started in 2016 after Bia Tosha accused Kenya Breweries Ltd (KBL) of terminating the distributorship contract entered between them in 2006.
