The Commercial Court in Nairobi has lifted orders that had blocked the East Africa Development Bank from auctioning Entim Sidai Wellness Sanctuary, a property linked to former Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju.
The decision clears the way for the bank to proceed with efforts to recover money from a long-running loan dispute.
The property sits on about 20 acres in Karen and includes a large colonial-style house with nine bedrooms, a smaller bungalow, staff quarters, a tennis court and other facilities.
It was among the assets offered as security when Dari Limited, a company connected to Tuju, took a loan of about 9.3 million US dollars from the bank in 2015.
The original amount was roughly equivalent to Sh1.2 billion at the time. The bank has said the outstanding sum has grown over the years through interest, penalties and other charges.
Different figures have been cited in the dispute, with some reports referring to around Sh1.9 billion and others to higher amounts including accumulated costs.
The case has moved through several courts over more than a decade. After the loan went into default, the bank obtained a judgment in a UK court in 2019.
Kenyan courts later recognised that decision. One of the other properties used as security, Dari Business Park, was sold at auction in 2024.
Tuju and his company challenged the recovery process and sought to stop further sales.
In May 2026, Justice Moses Ado of the High Court granted temporary protection for Entim Sidai. The judge ordered that Tuju deposit Sh50 million in a joint interest-earning account held by lawyers for both sides within 30 days and file an appeal within 60 days.
The court warned that failure to meet either condition would automatically end the temporary orders blocking the auction.
Auctioneers later advertised a sale for August 2026, but that exercise did not go ahead after no qualified bidders appeared. Tuju maintained that money had been deposited and that related cases were still pending in various courts, including the Supreme Court and the Auctioneers Tribunal.
The bank and the court, however, took the position that a fresh deposit of Sh50 million was required specifically for this property under the May order.
An existing sum of about Sh52.5 million held in connection with an earlier Court of Appeal matter could not be treated as meeting that new condition.
In the recent Commercial Court ruling, the judges confirmed that the security requirement had not been satisfied in the manner ordered.
As a result, the protective orders were lifted. This means the bank is now free to move ahead with the auction process for Entim Sidai.
The dispute has been marked by repeated legal filings, temporary injunctions and public statements from both sides.
Tuju has argued that the recovery actions were improper and that related matters remained before the courts.
The bank has maintained that it followed the loan agreement and court judgments and that no satisfactory repayment had been made over many years.
Entim Sidai is known as a wellness retreat in an upmarket part of Nairobi. Its potential sale forms part of the bank’s wider efforts to recover the outstanding debt through the charged properties.
The latest court decision removes the immediate legal barrier that had prevented the auction from proceeding, though further applications or appeals remain possible under the normal court process.
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