A businessman has been put to task to explain why he evicted a city tycoon from leased premises despite receiving Sh981 million in rent.
Appearing before Justice Charles Kariuki, Pankaj Chhaganlal Shah admitted receiving the said amount arising from a lease agreement signed in September 2017 and set to run until September 2023.
Shah told the court that the plaintiff, SBS Dunhill Group Limited- owned by city billionaire Chris Obure- was evicted from the property, Senteu Plaza in Kilimani, on 16 May 2025 pursuant to a court order which he claimed had not been stayed.
“The tenant is not in the lease building. Through my lawyer we got orders for them to vacate. I don’t know that the orders were stayed and the case is still ongoing,” Pankaj stated before the court.
However, during cross-examination by Obure’s lawyer, Muthoni Nkonge, the businessman conceded that the eviction orders had been contested in court.
It emerged that the property in question is jointly owned by four brothers: the late Ajeetkumar Chhaganlal, the late Chandulal Chhaganlal Shah, Pankaj Chhaganlal Shah, and Kamalkumar Chhaganlal Shah.
The court heard that the four entered into a lease agreement with SBS Dunhill Limited to sublet the premises for six years at a cost of Sh160 million.
Further testimony revealed that after the lease period, the property was to be sold to SBS for Sh1.3 billion.
“It was also resolved at the said meeting that the prospective Landlord (s) be informed that the Applicant’s International Board of Directors would,” only take up space in their building and invest close to USD Ten Million (say USD 10,000,000.00) therein if the (the Landlords) agree in good faith that they would sell of the building to the Applicant at the expiry of the anticipated six (6)-year Lease term beginning 2017 to 2020 and 2020 to 2023,” Obure testified.
SBS told the court it was irregularly evicted after paying over Sh1 billion towards acquiring the property. Pankaj, however, denied receiving any money related to the sale of the building.
He insisted that by the time of eviction, SBS was in rent arrears amounting to Sh10 million.
“The tenant had indicated in a letter that he was in rent arrears and he was looking for money to offset the Rent arrears the money was not paid,” said Pankaj.
He further disclosed that the lease agreements were signed by his two now-deceased brothers, Ajeetkumar and Chandulal, who passed away in 2018 and 2022 respectively. He said he never signed any lease with SBS.
The matter is set for mention in October to confirm compliance with submissions and to fix a judgment date.
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