High Court Refuses to Block Bonfire Adventures Co-Founder from Operating 48 Safaricom Lines

The bitter divorce between Bonfire Adventures and Events Ltd co-founders Sarah Njoki Nyaga and Simon Waithaka Kabu has taken another sharp legal turn, with the High Court refusing to grant Njoki orders that would have blocked Kabu from using 48 Safaricom phone lines registered in his name and central to the day-to-day operations of their jointly-owned tour company.

The ruling hinged on a fundamental principle of contract law. Because the 48 lines are registered solely under Kabu's name, the court found that neither Njoki nor Bonfire Adventures holds any enforceable relationship with Safaricom over those numbers. The judge was direct on the point, stating that since Kabu is the registered subscriber, the company and its co-founder have no privity of contract with the telecommunications provider — meaning they cannot legally compel Safaricom to act on their behalf regarding those lines.

Njoki had urged the court to look beyond the registration records, arguing that the lines were placed under Kabu's name purely for administrative convenience and that he effectively held them in trust on behalf of the company. The court was not persuaded. In the absence of a trust agreement, a board resolution, or any written contract to support that position, the claim remained unsubstantiated. No paperwork, no case.

The financial stakes make this dispute particularly consequential. Kabu is demanding Sh1.86 billion in accumulated charges for the company's use of the lines over time, and is further seeking Sh14.4 million per month for Bonfire Adventures to continue accessing them going forward. Njoki had approached the court seeking to stop him from interfering with those numbers and to restrict his access to company data and systems tied to the lines.

The judge concluded that Njoki had failed to establish a sufficiently strong case to justify the interim orders she was seeking. It is a significant legal setback for her at this stage, though the broader dispute between the estranged couple over the company is far from settled.

To put the numbers in perspective, Bonfire Adventures operates roughly 154 phone lines in total. Of those, 102 are registered directly under the company's name and are therefore not subject to this particular dispute. The 48 contested lines represent only a portion of the company's telecommunications setup, yet the sums Kabu is demanding for their use give them outsized importance in the ongoing legal battle.

The case has attracted considerable public interest as one of the most high-profile business and matrimonial disputes in Kenya's tourism industry, with two of the sector's most recognisable figures locked in a legal contest that stretches well beyond the breakdown of a marriage.