A Nairobi magistrate has declined to suspend East African Breweries Limited’s (EABL) licence in a Sh10 million payment dispute with media personality Willis Raburu, instead ordering the brewer to deposit the disputed amount in a joint account pending the hearing and determination of the case.
Senior Principal Magistrate A. Nyoike, sitting at the Milimani Commercial Magistrate’s Court, ruled that suspending or revoking EABL’s licence would amount to a mandatory injunction — a remedy Raburu had not met the legal threshold to obtain.
The magistrate directed EABL to deposit Sh10 million into a joint account operated by advocates for both sides, with the funds to be held pending the outcome of the underlying suit.
Raburu, through his company Steizon Limited, sued EABL and its marketing partner Game Changer Marketing Limited, claiming he was contracted to provide influencer marketing, branding, event coordination and digital promotion services for the Furaha City Festival held in December 2024 under the BebaBeba campaign.
He claims the agreed payment for the work was Sh10 million, which remains unpaid.
According to court documents, Raburu says he fulfilled his obligations by producing more than 60 social media reels and over 100 static posts, while coordinating a network of artistes and brand influencers who travelled across the country to promote EABL’s products.
He says he also submitted a post-event report and made several demands for payment, but was not compensated, leaving him liable for payments owed to creditors he had engaged to help execute the campaign.
The dispute has followed an unusual procedural route. Raburu initially filed a similar case at the High Court in December 2025, seeking comparable orders, before withdrawing it days later. Steizon Limited then filed a fresh suit at the Milimani Commercial Magistrate’s Court, which has jurisdiction over commercial disputes within the applicable monetary limits.
Game Changer Marketing has denied engaging Raburu for the Furaha City Festival, arguing that its dealings with him were limited to an earlier campaign, the Chrome Wabebe Campus Caravan.
The company says Raburu had already been paid for that engagement after EABL approved the costs and issued a purchase order.
EABL has similarly disputed the claim, arguing that the Furaha event was part of the earlier Wabebe campaign rather than a separate engagement requiring a new contract. The brewer says there was no second purchase order or signed agreement supporting the Sh10 million claim.
The court also dismissed EABL’s objection that the case was barred under the doctrine of sub judice, finding that the company had not demonstrated that the dispute was already pending before another court in circumstances that would prevent the fresh suit from proceeding.
In his ruling, Magistrate Nyoike said the conflicting accounts presented by the parties raised issues that could only be resolved through a full hearing.
“The conflicting evidence must be tested at the hearing,” the magistrate said.
The case will now proceed to trial, where the parties’ competing claims over the alleged engagement and payment obligation will be examined.
Raburu has previously said he went to court only after attempts to resolve the matter outside court failed.
“Court was not a first resort. After over a year of good-faith engagement, this was the final step. We MUST protect creatives at all costs,” he said.
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