Nairobi — A court in Nairobi has ruled that entities or shylocks not licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) cannot participate in court proceedings until they get approvals.

In a ruling made by Kiongo Kagenyo of the Milimani Small Claims Court, the presiding magistrate raised concerns with Aventus Technology Limited, a digital loan provider, which had submitted a case at the court for litigation and yet it had not met CBK rules and regulations.

Donald Nyaga, who represented the firm in the court, had a hard time explaining whether the lender was in conformity with the provisions of Section 33S of the CBK Act, which prohibits firms from offering 'digital credit business' in the country unless given the greenlight by the CBK.

"In his response, Mr. Nyaga informed the Court that the company is in the pipeline of compliance," Nyaga wrote in his ruling.

"As it stands therefore, Aventus Technology Limited is operating in non-conformity with the dictates of the regulating Authority and the court cannot dignify an illegality by presiding over such matters," he added.

"For the foregoing, all the matters filed by Aventus Technology Limited as appearing in today's causelist are hereby dismissed for the Claimant is operating contrary to the law."

The Nairobi court also warned claimants such as Kalita System Debt Holding Kenya Limited, Garnet Portfolio Management Limited, Sirius Collect Limited, M-Collect Limited, and Maxlev-Finance Limited for filing claims and abandoning them halfway.

"The totality of the foregoing is that the Court is compelled to make a finding that the Claimant is The Judiciary of Kenya abusing the Court process making it a candidate of being declared a vexatious litigant pursuant to section 2 (1) of the Vexatious Proceedings Act, and consequently dismiss the suit in limine, at this stage, which it hereby does."