Court will deliver a ruling on April 14,2026 on how the matter in which some of the British multinational beverages firm Diageo PLC officials are accused of sexual harassment will proceed.
When the matter came before magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo today, the court was informed that EABL is yet to be served with some of the documents from the victims.
“There was a ruling from the Chief Magistrate on the issue of service on the side of the respondents but we affected the service on April 1, 2026,”added lawyer Kibe Mungai.
Magistrate Onsarigo said that he had just seen the file and wanted to go through the it first.
Some of the victims want to be given permission to privately prosecute the officials.
Lawyer Cecil Miller has filed an application dated March 23/2026 objecting the plea of private prosecution.
Mr.Miller also challenged the fact that the 4 and 5 accused are not represented yet and being a criminal case there need to be a representation.
Lawyer Kibe on the other hand has filed an objection to that.
The genesis of the matter is a contract signed in 2016/17 between JILK and KBL for the construction of a brewing factory in Kisumu. The alleged offenses are said to have been committed during the execution of the contracts. They are seeking to prosecute Irish nationals Brendan Daly and Nicholas Quarke for allegedly sexually harassing the two female employees of JILK. The two Irish nationals were employees of Diageo and incharge of the Kisumu project. The company filed the application on March 5. The following day the magistrate ruled that the application was not urgent and directed that it be served on the DPP and the case mentioned in court on March 24. JILK says the decision was actuated by compromise, gross incompetence and willful violation of the law. “Based on some information in our possession the directions issued are neither innocent nor issued in good faith. The Magistrates decision to shield the cited Respondents from further proceedings and to nominate the DPP to act as the Respondent is biased and part of an elaborate scheme hatched by Diageo PLC and its subsidiaries to subvert and corrupt Kenyan judicial system, JILK says in the letter copied to the Judicial Service Commission. They accuse the magistrate of having failed to read the content of the application before making the ruling adding that they can’t expect him to determine the application with the urgency and priority it deserves. The company said the magistrate had changed their case to project them as the villains rather than the aggrieved victims.
