By MAGUTA KIMEMIA 

Receivers appointed by a bank to manage a biscuit manufacturing company were yesterday ordered to leave the firm's premises yesterday.

However, Mr Justice Aaron Ringera of the Milimani Commercial Courts, Nairobi, gave Jambo Biscuits (K) Ltd and its director, Mr Nitin Purshottam Dawda, seven days to file a written undertaking for damages.

In his 17-page ruling, the judge further directed the company to pay all employees outstanding salaries for November. The company should also re-open its factory in the shortest time possible, he said.

The company was ordered not sell any of its plants, equipment or land contained in a debenture charged to Barclays Bank pending determination of the suit.

Jambo Biscuits, through lawyer Harit Sheth, had applied to have the two receivers, Mr Andrew Douglas Gregory and Mr Abdul Zahir Sheikh, appointed by the bank on November 16 last year after the company allegedly failed to pay a debt of Sh395,128,288.50, ejected from the firm's premises.

The company also wanted the bank and the receivers restrained from selling any of its assets.

Mr Justice Ringera noted that within a month of the appointment of the receivers, the factory had almost come to a standstill.

Jambo Biscuits, he said, had satisfied the first two conditions for granting an interlocutory injunction and had shown it had a suitable case with a probability of success.

The judge dismissed the bank's application for stay of excution of the orders pending appeal.