A quantity surveyor hired by the University of Nairobi (UoN) during the construction of its Ksh2.3 billion tower has now gone to court seeking his dues amounting to Ksh237 million.
The amount includes a Ksh193.8 million arbitral award plus accrued interest, according to the suit filed by Songa Ogoda & Associates, the surveyor.
“That the honourable court be pleased to adopt as a judgement of the court capable of enforcement in execution the final arbitral award dated November 24, 2017 in favour of the applicant for the sum of Ksh193.8 million with simple interest thereon at 14.5 per cent per annum from December 2017 to date,” says the surveyor in court papers.
The dispute dates back to 2011 when the surveyor was contracted to undertake quantity survey for the multi-billion University of Nairobi Towers, but the contract only lasted a few months.
According to a Business Daily, Songa Ogoda and Associates prepared the bill of costs for the tower which was used to tender the contract.
The contract was awarded to Chinese company China Wu Yi Company before it was cancelled in 2012 by the Public Procurement and Review Board.
Read: Management Lying About Accommodation Crisis – UoN Students
The university then asked the surveyor to restructure the bill but re-advertised the tender, before awarding it to the same company. The university then cancelled the surveyor’s contract on grounds that it was done illegally.
It is reported that UoN did not pay the surveyor for the services rendered before terminating the contract, despite using his paper work to float the tender.
Three arbitrators, Stanley Kibathi, Gitonga Murugara and Haron Nyakundi however ruled that a valid contract existed between the two, and that the university adopted paperwork from the surveyor which it used to float the tender.
In the suit, the university has not challenged the arbitration despite having put a defense team.
The university has been facing financial hardships, with a current debt of over Ksh1.6 billion unremitted pension and statutory deductions for its workers.
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