A Rwandese Investor on Tuesday on Tuesday told the court that he was the sole owner of the disputed Sh 400 Million StayOnline Kenya Ltd and that Businessman Kirimi Koome who also seeks control of the company never put any money in the business.
Desire Muhinyuza, told Justice Mabeya that he was connected to Koome by an E- Commerce Manager at Equity Bank Rwanda, Patrick Gakuba who recommended Koome as a highly dependable man.He told the court that he was informed that Koome was from a rich family with interests from hotels , roads and real estate and that he could help him meet VIPs for the business.
StayOnline Kenya Ltd which is at the center of the dispute and which Desire says originates from StayOnline Rwanda, sells merchandise online, retains a commission for the commodities sold and releases the profit to the holding company.
Desire who is being represented by lawyer Danstan Omari, testified that he could not open the business -Stay Online Limited in the country as he did not have prerequisite papers and thereby opting to get an agent to open and run the business which are in Canada ,Uganda ,and Tanzania.
“StayOnline Limited has a total of five companies of a similar name and style incorporated in five different countries. I am the director in Rwanda and Canada while in the rest of the jurisdictions, I have deputized representative or Local Agents who are Directors and who hold 100 percent of the shareholding and with whom I run the companies. This is due to immigration hustle and issues to do with work permits which I have since regularized,” he told the court.
He told the court that as a requirement to run an E-Commerce company; the bank which is used to register the company requires collateral to hold onto before they activate the same.
According to him, UBA Bank required him to deposit $ 100,000 at first as the initial capital requirement. But upon a discussion and negotiation between the bank and himself a figure of $ 29,0000 was arrived.
“In the negotiations solely done by myself and UBA bank, we agreed to have the payment of the initial deposit staggered into three installments,” he told the court.
“Koome wrote a letter to stay online so if the company is his with 1000 shares does that mean he was writing a letter to himself,” Desire asked.
He now wants the court to declare him as the sole proprietor of Stay Online Limited.