The agritech company, Twiga Foods, has successfully halted attempts by a cloud services provider to force its liquidation over an alleged debt of Sh39 million. The firm, owned by billionaire Peter Njonjo, has secured temporary court orders preventing Incentro Africa Ltd from proceeding with the liquidation process.

Twiga argued before Justice Josephine Mong’are that the petition to liquidate the company was driven by hidden motives. They claimed that it was filed in retaliation after Twiga directly contacted Google Ireland, the ultimate provider of the cloud services, to raise concerns about how the billing account was established, organized, and managed. Justice Mong’are has scheduled the hearing for Tuesday morning.

“That Incentro Africa is acting unreasonably in pursuing liquidation of the company instead of pursuing other remedies as set out in the agreement between the parties,” the firm said in the petition.

Twiga Foods took legal action after receiving an undated bill of $261,878, which was officially filed in court on September 4. According to the company’s legal representative, Daniel Ngugi, the demand was flawed as it was presented prematurely. Ngugi also alleged that the cloud services provider from Google acted in bad faith, attempting to force Twiga to pay a debt that did not actually exist.

“That in the event that Incentro Africa is allowed to file and publish a liquidation petition, it will cause extreme damage to the company because of the wrongful impression to its employees, business partners, bankers, creditors and partners and the Kenya Revenue Authority that the company is insolvent,” he said.

According to Mr. Ngugi, if any liquidation process commences, it would result in a cross default for all of Twiga’s lenders, affecting all the company’s loan obligations, which it is currently fulfilling. Twiga Foods operates as a B2B marketplace, connecting farmers directly with urban retailers through a mobile-based cashless supply platform. To enhance and streamline its operations, the company had to enlist the services of a cloud provider. The distributor has been utilizing Incentro’s Google Cloud platform reseller account to facilitate its business activities.