A rent-to-own dispute over Nairobi's Senteu Plaza has taken a fresh twist after tenant SBS Dunhill Group, which says it invested Sh1.2 billion in the property and surrounding infrastructure in anticipation of acquiring it, secured interim tribunal orders protecting its claimed possession of the leased premises.
The Business Premises Rent Tribunal temporarily restrained the building's current occupant, Martin Nyongesa, from interfering with the company's claimed quiet possession pending the hearing of a fresh application.
At the heart of the long-running dispute is SBS Dunhill's claim that the building owners had agreed to a rent-to-own arrangement signed in 2017 under which the company would buy the property after the six-year lease expired, a claim the landlords have denied.
The company claims it paid the landlords $8.1 million (Sh1.1 billion) and a further Sh67 million, covering rent and part consideration for the anticipated purchase of the property. It claims to have spent a further Sh177.6 million on street lighting along Lenana and Galana roads, CCTV installations and landscaping works.
The fresh orders deepen a three-year courtroom battle now spanning the tribunal, the Environment and Land Court and the High Court over possession, eviction, ownership and a multibillion-shilling damages claim.
The tribunal also joined Mr Nyongesa as the third respondent in the proceedings after SBS Dunhill argued that he had become central to the dispute over occupation of the first floor of the Lenana Road office block. The matter will be heard on July 27.
SBS Dunhill recently filed a separate High Court suit seeking damages over its 2025 eviction. The company has now returned to the tribunal seeking to enforce earlier reinstatement orders that it says remain valid.
In court papers, SBS Dunhill alleges it was forcibly removed from the premises on May 16, 2025, after the landlord obtained ex parte orders in separate tribunal proceedings.
It says the eviction was carried out "in the company of over 15 police officers, who were tasked with overseeing the forceful and illegal eviction of the tenant."
The company further claims it was never served with either the pleadings or the ex parte orders before the eviction took place.
SBS Dunhill says it successfully challenged the eviction before the tribunal, which ordered the landlords to restore it to the premises, reopen the offices and allow it full access and occupation.
The tribunal also directed the Officer Commanding Kilimani Police Station to ensure compliance with those orders.
According to the fresh application, the landlords leased the same premises to Mr Nyongesa on May 17, 2025 while the dispute remained unresolved. SBS Dunhill argues that the lease was intended to defeat the tribunal's earlier reinstatement orders.
It says Mr Nyongesa later filed his own reference before the tribunal and obtained interim orders protecting his occupation. However, SBS Dunhill says that case was struck out on January 20, 2026, causing the interim injunctions to lapse and removing any legal barrier to enforcement of the earlier reinstatement orders.
"Despite the reinstatement orders of July 28, 2025 being in place, the 1st and 3rd respondents (Ajeetkumar C. Shah and Nyongesa) have arbitrarily restrained the tenant/applicant from accessing and taking possession of the premises," Geoffrey Somoni Birundu, the company's chief executive officer, says in a supporting affidavit.
Mr Birundu further states that SBS Dunhill attempted to enforce the reinstatement orders on June 21, 2026, but was blocked by the landlords. He says the incident was reported at Kilimani Police Station under OB No. 24/21/06/26.
The dispute traces its roots to a six-year lease signed in 2017 after SBS Dunhill says the parties discussed a rent-to-own arrangement under which it would eventually purchase Senteu Plaza.
The company previously told the courts it invested about Sh1.2 billion upgrading the building, fitting out its offices, installing CCTV systems, landscaping the property and financing street lighting around Lenana and Galana roads in anticipation of acquiring the building.
The building's owners have consistently denied agreeing to sell Senteu Plaza. In December 2025, the Environment and Land Court dismissed SBS Dunhill's bid to compel the sale after finding no enforceable agreement requiring the landlords to transfer the property.
Earlier this month, the same court also dismissed SBS Dunhill's judicial review challenge against tribunal proceedings involving Mr Nyongesa.
The latest tribunal orders leave multiple cases running simultaneously before different courts.
While SBS Dunhill seeks to regain possession through the tribunal and recover damages through the High Court, the landlords and Mr Nyongesa continue to oppose those claims and maintain that the earlier decisions settled key aspects of the dispute.
