The High Court has thrown out a case by a disgruntled contractor seeking to stop the acquisition of shares in East African Breweries PLC by Asahi Group Holdings of Japan.
In a ruling, Justice Gregory Mutai refused to grant the orders sought by JILK Construction Ltd to stop, restrain or preserve the transaction between Diageo PLC and Asahi for the transfer of majority shareholding in EABL.
The judge said the claims by JILK, whose dispute is with EABL subsidiary Kenya Breweries Limited, can still be considered even if the transaction proceeds, and therefore would not warrant stopping the deal between Diageo and Asahi.
JILK’s case was also dismissed on the basis that Diageo was not shown to be disappearing or becoming unreachable once the transaction is completed.
EABL and KBL will remain in existence, the judge also said, and if Asahi becomes the main shareholder, it will be subject to Kenyan regulatory and legal processes.
The court also agreed with the reasoning in an earlier attempt by the disgruntled distributor, Bia Tosha, that no sufficient nexus had been shown between the historical dispute and the share transaction.
JILK had also cited the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights but the judge ruled that while they are important, the court was not persuaded that they are binding as general rules of international law or as a ratified treaty.
The judge also ruled that public interest favours completion of the transaction because of its significant public finance impact.
JILK Construction has been embroiled in a dispute with KBL since 2019 over its claims for payment for construction work at Kisumu Brewery. The dispute was handled via arbitration but that was stopped after KBL said it had discovered a series of issues, such as collusion between the arbitrator and JILK that had resulted in the inflation of the amount in dispute from KSh163 million to KSh2.4 billion.
In the court on Wednesday, the judge also noted that JILK do not claim ownership of the shares being sold and payment out of the sale proceeds.
The transaction between Diageo and Asahi was announced in December 2025 and is now pending approval by the Competition Authority of Kenya.
