Senteu Plaza owners win again as court dismisses fresh tenancy row

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A firm linked to businessman Chris Obure has lost a fresh court battle over Nairobi's Senteu Plaza, after the Environment and Land Court dismissed its bid to overturn tribunal orders that protected the building's new tenant.
In a judgment delivered virtually on June 15, 2026, Justice Charles Mbogo struck out SBS Dunhill Group (East Africa) Limited's application in which the firm had sought orders of certiorari to quash both the proceedings and the orders issued by the Business Premises Rent Tribunal in Nairobi BPRT Case No. E711 of 2025.
SBS Dunhill had wanted the court to nullify tribunal orders issued on June 24, 2025, in a case filed by one Martin Nyongesa against the owners of Senteu Plaza Ajeetkumar C. Shah & Others and SBS Dunhill itself.
Those orders had barred any interference with Nyongesa's tenancy after he moved into the premises following SBS Dunhill's eviction.
The firm argued the tribunal had acted irregularly and beyond its powers, questioning how a lease agreement dated May 17, 2025 was signed a day after SBS Dunhill says it was irregularly evicted.
It also complained it was never served with the pleadings or the disputed orders.
But Justice Mbogo found the firm had not backed up its claims with evidence.
Citing the principle that judicial review concerns the process of decision-making rather than the merits of a dispute, the judge held that it was not the tribunal's place to determine how quickly an agreement should be signed between parties, since that is a private contractual matter outside the tribunal's knowledge.
The judge also noted a standoff over the facts themselves: while the Shah family maintained no orders had actually been issued on June 24, 2025, neither side produced evidence to prove or disprove this.
Without the tribunal's actual proceedings before him, the judge said he could not assume an appellate role to determine what may have led the tribunal to its conclusions, and could not rule on presumptions alone.
The court ultimately found that SBS Dunhill had not established proof to warrant the orders of certiorari it sought, and dismissed the application, with each party ordered to bear its own costs.
One of the dismissed cases arose from Tribunal Case filed after the eviction of SBS Dunhill Group (East Africa) Limited from Senteu Plaza on May 16, 2025.
Following the eviction, the property owners Shah's family leased the premises to a new tenant who took possession under a valid lease agreement.
The new tenant subsequently sought protection from the Tribunal, arguing that his occupation was under threat.
On June 24, 2025, the Tribunal issued orders preserving his possession and restraining interference with his tenancy pending the hearing of the dispute.
SBS Dunhill challenged those orders through judicial review proceedings, arguing that they affected its ability to enforce separate orders it had obtained elsewhere.
However, the Environment and Land Court found that the allegations against the Tribunal had not been adequately proved and declined to intervene.
The ruling compounds a string of setbacks for SBS Dunhill, which lost a separate, more consequential battle over the building in December 2025.
In that case, the firm through businessman Obure had sought to compel Senteu Plaza's owners to sell it the building, arguing it had a binding board resolution and an alleged legitimate expectation of purchase.
Justice Mbogo dismissed that claim too, finding the October 2017 lease made no mention of any board resolution, and that one of the lessors whose signature appeared on the document had in fact died before it was executed, a signature the judge said "if any, was fraudulent."
The judge found that the lease agreements executed between the parties did not incorporate the board resolution relied upon by SBS Dunhill and that the owners of Senteu Plaza were neither participants in nor parties to the meeting where the resolution was allegedly passed.
The court further noted that the property owners had expressly communicated that the building was not for sale, effectively extinguishing any claim that a binding promise to sell had ever existed.
As a consequence, the court held that SBS Dunhill had no legal or contractual right to compel the sale of the property.
Obure through SBS Dunhill was evicted from Senteu Plaza on May 16, 2025.
The premises were subsequently leased to a new tenant known as Nyongesa, whose tenancy the tribunal, and now the court, has twice moved to protect.
With both the ownership claim and the latest procedural challenge dismissed, the Shah family's position over Senteu Plaza remains undisturbed, even as SBS Dunhill pursues a separate Sh7 billion compensation suit over its eviction in the Commercial and Tax Division of the High Court.