The Catholic Church in Kenya has been ordered to pay a Somali Muslim owned restaurant 13 million Kenyan shillings (KSh) (£97,000) for terminating a six-year rental agreement at Waumini House, the headquarters of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB).
On 6 June, Supreme Court judge Isaac Lenaola ruled that the church had discriminated against Al-Yusra Restaurant Limited after it abruptly barred the eatery from running its business at the building, which is owned and managed by the Catholic Church in Kenya.
The bishops are required for pay 10 million KSh to compensate the refurbishing costs of the disputed premise. The remaining three million KSh will be paid out as compensation for the restaurant being forced out on unlawful discriminatory grounds.
“The case has brought to the fore century old conflict between religions, yet the issue would have rested as a tenancy dispute,” said Lenaola.
Owners of the Al-Yusra restaurant went to court in 2014 to force the Church to unlock the rented premise on the ground floor of the building, which the church had allegedly locked, denying them access.
The restaurant told the court that the bishops had argued that they could not allow a Somali Muslim business on its property. The restaurant owners, by this point, had already spent 17 KSh refurbishing the restaurant in preparation for its opening.
The judge ruled he had found that the catholic bishops had discriminated against Al-Yusra on grounds of ethnicity and religion.
But the bishops have termed the ruling as unfair and have promised to issue a comprehensive response to judgement.
In the past clerics have denied that they were discriminating against the Muslims when the terminated the tenancy agreement.
Some bishops suggest that the tenancy was terminated due security concerns, claiming that the restaurant would have increased traffic into the Church building.
Waumini House is located about a kilometre from the Westgate, the upscale shopping mall which was attacked by al-Shabaab, the Somalia based al-Qaeda affiliate, in 2013. In one of the deadliest attacks by the Islamist group in Kenya, 67 people were killed and nearly 180 injured.
PICTURE: Waumini House, the headquarters of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB)
Loading ...
