Rosewa Agencies Ltd v Kenya Power & Lighting Company Ltd (Environment and Land Case Civil Suit 1048 of 2014) [2026] KEELC 4052 (KLR)

The court compared the two applications. The review application invoked the limited review jurisdiction under Order 45 on grounds of new and important matter, error apparent on the face of the record, or sufficient reason, and was dismissed. The present application invokes the distinct statutory discretion to stay execution where a suit is pending between the decree holder and judgment debtor. Although the parties are the same, the issue in the present application was not directly and substantially in issue in the earlier application, so Section 7 of the Civil Procedure Act was not triggered.

The court noted that a judgment debtor does not invariably succeed in stopping execution merely because another suit is pending; the discretion must be exercised judiciously on demonstrated sufficient cause. The pending suit seeks to set aside the judgment, declare the 1975 Wayleave Agreement valid and that no compensation is payable - prayers that would directly affect the decree. Execution attaching over fifty vehicles and office equipment would substantially disrupt the Defendant's operations and may cause prejudice not fully remediable if the Defendant succeeds. The stay was therefore granted conditioned on deposit of the decretal amount.

Relying on Blackwood Hodge Kenya Ltd, the court held that the word 'person' in Section 44 does not include a corporate body, so the Defendant's vehicles and office equipment are not immune merely because they are used in its operations. The court acknowledged that what constitutes tools of trade is fact-specific - office furniture was held not to be tools of trade in Francis Kamau Njoroge, while certain office equipment could qualify per Jonathan Wepukhuli - but found the provision did not preclude execution against the Defendant. The nature and extent of the attachment nonetheless remained relevant to the discretion under Order 22 Rule 25.