Bia Tosha Retreat Clears Legal Path For Diageo-Asahi Buyout Deal

In a major legal climbdown at the High Court, beer distributor Bia Tosha Distributors Ltd has formally withdrawn the most expansive elements of its lawsuit against East African Breweries PLC and Diageo, which has come to be knowns as Diageo-ASAHI deal. The retreat effectively abandons the distributor’s substantive legal challenge to the $2.3 billion (Ksh300 billion) Diageo-Asahi buyout and drops a Ksh45 billion financial claim.

During the session, Senior Counsel Kiragu Kimani, representing Bia Tosha, informed the court that the petitioner was prepared to abandon its “Further Amended Petition” dated 30th January 2026, alongside all supporting expert reports and affidavits. The presiding judge formally marked the 2026 petition as withdrawn and ordered the accompanying documents expunged from the record, breaking a procedural deadlock and paving the way for an expedited hearing.

The expunged January 2026 petition was the anchor of Bia Tosha’s recent effort to intertwine a historical distribution conflict with a global corporate acquisition. The distributor had sought to use the amended filings to legally block Diageo’s sale of its 65% stake to Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings. The Diageo-ASAHI transaction that constitutes a change of majority shareholder rather than a change in the corporate entity itself.

The withdrawal follows a critical setback on 9th April 2026, when the High Court dismissed Bia Tosha’s interlocutory application seeking conservatory orders to halt the deal. With the contested 2026 amendments stripped away, the legal battle reverts to the “Amended Petition” dated 20 June 2016.

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What is left of Bia Tosha’s case is the decade-old foundational dispute: a conflict over the termination of exclusive distribution routes in Nairobi and a claim for the refund of approximately KSh38.3 million paid as goodwill. The court will now focus squarely on these historical commercial and distributorship grievances, shedding the complex, fact-intensive corporate disputes that the 2026 amendments had attempted to introduce.

 Accelerated Timelines

The withdrawal was welcomed by the legal teams for EABL and Diageo — including Senior Counsels Kamau Karori and George Oraro — who noted their clients’ eagerness to finally conclude the oldest pending matter in the Constitutional Division. To ensure the case moves swiftly, the court issued strict new timelines.

EABL, Diageo, and other interested parties have 14 days to file cleaned-up responses limited strictly to the 20th June 2016 petition, while Bia Tosha will have 10 days thereafter to file any supplementary replies. Meawhile, several pending interlocutory applications — including contempt of court motions — will be held in abeyance so as not to derail the main hearing.

The court has scheduled a mention of the case against Diageo-ASAHI for 2nd July 2026, to confirm compliance and resolve whether the hearing will require cross-examination of witnesses or proceed purely on written affidavits. The substantive hearing on the 2016 petition is locked in for 20th July 2026.

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