The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) can finally breathe a sigh of relief. It has been 26 years of a court battle that threatened to cost the Fund billions of shillings.

However, last Thursday the High Court dismissed a case in which Alcon International, a contractor involved in the construction of the Workers House, had sought compensation for its equipment and machinery.

In a case that preceded a series of court disputes dating back to 1998, in 2020 Alcon sued NSSF, alleging that it was unfairly barred from taking back its equipment and machinery used to build Workers House in 1998 after NSSF terminated its contract. .

“(Alcon) filed this claim against (NSSF) seeking the return of plant, machinery, equipment and construction material wrongfully withheld since May 1998… or, alternatively, recovery of value… compensation for commercial loss, aggravated , special and general. damages, interest and costs of the suit,” the court documents read in part. However, NSSF denied the claims, urging the court to dismiss the case because the matter had already been resolved in court rulings, which determined that Alcon did not have a valid claim.

In 1998, Alcon sued the NSSF for the recovery of equipment and machinery for the sum of 1.97 million dollars, a case that went to arbitration and was resolved in favor of Alcon, which also received, among others, 2.78 million. of dollars for the losses suffered as a result of the seizure.

However, the Supreme Court later set aside the arbitration award and remanded the matter to the High Court for a new trial, which was dismissed for failure to disclose the cause of action.

Therefore, the NSSF argued that the alleged seizure had been substantially conclusively determined.

The Fund also argued that it had initially contracted a different company to construct the 19-story building, but later discovered that Alcon International Limited had taken over the contract without its knowledge, amounting to fraud.

Court documents indicate that NSSF had contracted Alcon International Limited Kenya, but Alcon International Limited Uganda, which had not won the tender, undertook construction without any contract with NSSF.

“It is true that the plaintiff (Alcon) committed fraud when he entered the premises of the defendant (NSSF) knowing full well that… he had no contract… as the defendant claimed, an illegality once brought to the attention of the court nullifies all matters of pleadings, including admissions made thereon. The plaintiff cannot seek to recover from a transaction that he entered into illegally,” Judge Musa Ssekaana said.

He also noted that Alcon had filed an Arbitration Cause in 1998 for the recovery of the value of equipment and machinery, noting that therefore it could not present the same “cause of action before this court under the guise of a continuing grievance in detinue for the “which has the right to recover the value of the property.”

It therefore ruled that Alcon had not established an ongoing cause of action against NSSF, upholding all of NSSF’s preliminary objections.

“Having admitted all the preliminary objections raised by (NSSF) with respect to the (Alcon) complaint… this complaint is dismissed with costs to the defendant,” it ruled.

Gerald Paul Kasaato, deputy director general of the NSSF, said in an email in response to the ruling that dismissing Alcon’s claims marked the end of protracted litigation that had lasted 26 years.

“We have always been confident that the Fund would prevail given that the entire case… was based on fraudulent actions, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2013 and the High Court in 2019. Our decisions… have been justified. We have the certificate of title from the Workers’ House, a key object of the litigation, free of encumbrances,” he said.