The High Court has certified as urgent an application by Shabeel Project Services Limited in a rapidly escalating battle for ownership and control of several prime commercial properties currently occupied by Mahadi Energy Limited.
In directions issued on 27th October 2025, Justice Mohamed N. Kullow instructed Shabeel to serve its application on Mahadi Energy within 7 days, after which the respondent must file a replying affidavit within 14 days. The matter will be disposed of through written submissions, with each side assigned a strict 7-day timeline to serve their arguments consecutively.
The case will be mentioned on 8th December 2025 to confirm compliance and set the path for hearing. The court further issued a penal notice, cautioning that failure to obey the orders could attract legal consequences.
This development comes after Shabeel moved to court seeking urgent orders to reclaim possession of the properties in dispute.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari, the firm had filed a certificate of urgency arguing that ex parte orders issued on 23rd October 2025 have unfairly restrained it from taking possession of properties it reportedly purchased at public auctions conducted in August and September 2024.
Shabeel contends that unless the matter is heard on a priority basis, it will continue to suffer irreparable harm, as the properties are central to its investment operations.
However, Mahadi Energy Limited and its Managing Director, Ibrahim Hussein Mahadi, insist that the auctions were unlawful from the outset and that Shabeel obtained the Nairobi orders by withholding critical information from the court.
In a sworn affidavit, Mahadi argues that the properties form the backbone of his petroleum business, supporting storage and distribution operations that employ dozens and generate essential revenue.
According to Mahadi, there has been a long-running financial conflict between Mahadi Energy and Premier Bank Limited (formerly First Community Bank), which advanced the company Islamic financing facilities worth more than Sh631 million between 2011 and 2017.
The company claims that despite having paid approximately Sh530 million toward settling the facilities through bank payments, terminal earnings, and National Land Commission compensation, the bank continued to demand inflated sums that do not comply with Sharia principles prohibiting interest.
Mahadi Energy has already filed a constitutional petition in Mombasa, Petition No. E066 of 2024, challenging what it describes as the bank’s unlawful exercise of statutory power of sale.
The petition argues that Islamic banks cannot charge or enforce recovery of unjustified “profits” without transparency and proper risk-sharing, and therefore cannot rely on the Land Act to auction properties without complying with their own sacred financing values.
Mahadi further maintains that some of the auctioned parcels were not even charged to the bank, making their sale fraudulent. He accuses Shabeel of forum-shopping and misleading the Nairobi High Court by failing to disclose that the Mombasa court had already issued conservatory orders protecting the same properties from interference first by Justice Olga Sewe and later reinstated by Justice Gregory Mutai on 7th October 2025.
The contested properties include commercial land in South C and Pangani, Nairobi, as well as key plots in Mainland North, Mombasa, all said to be essential infrastructure for Mahadi Energy’s petroleum business. The firm warns that continued dispossession would lead to business collapse, job losses, and permanent loss of assets acquired over years of investment.
Shabeel Project Services, on the other hand, maintains that it is a bona fide purchaser and that the court must now move swiftly to restore its rights, arguing that the sales were conducted lawfully and in accordance with auction procedures.
