Milestone Game Limited has been taken to court for continuing operations using the Sportpesa brand, despite a court order issued on September 19 prohibiting the company from using the brand.
Milestone, owned by Kasarani MP Ronald Karauri and Bulgarian nationals, is facing contempt charges for disregarding the orders, according to a suit filed by Pevans East Africa, the original owners of the Sportpesa brand before the company split into two.
“The defendants’ disobedience is designed to defeat justice and render the proceedings herein a nullity and a mere academic exercise,” says Asenath Maina, who is a director of Pevans.
“The claimant invites the honourable court to rise to its judicial duty to defend the integrity of the judicial process, the constitutional values of rule of law and to defend the administration of justice by forthwith punishing the defendants for their egregious acts of contempt committed against this honourable court.”
Read: Cracks Emerge In BCLB Over Revoked SportPesa Licence
Milestone was dealt a blow last month after High Court judge Anthony Ndung’u suspended a licence issued to Milestone by the Bettíng Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) allowing it to run SportPesa. Milestone has since challenged the decision in court. In the debacle, two BCLB directors, Joy Masinde and Sabrina Kanini, said that bettíng license 00448, which Milestone was issued allowing it to run SportPesa is not procedural.
“Orders given by this honourable court on the 19th of September were issued without first hearing the interested party and thus amount to a violation of the interested party’s non-derogable right to a fair trial,” Milestone’s operating manager Bernard Chauro states in an affidavit.
According to Ms Maina, the transfer of of the brand, including Paybill numbers 955100 and 9555700 as well as the short-code 79079, was done through forgery and without the approval of the Pevans board.
SportPesa, one of Kenya’s biggest firms has been bedeviled with wrangles including tax fights with the government and disagreements among its original owners.
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