A Kenyan court has dismissed a case against Stockholm-based climate tech startup Earthbanc following a protracted legal battle with a former local partner, something Impact Loop reported on earlier this year.
The High Court at Eldoret, Kenya has ruled in favour of Earthbanc and its subsidiary Earthtree, dismissing a lawsuit brought by former subcontractor Green Planet Initiative 2050 Foundation (GPI) over the now-shuttered Regeneration Kenya carbon project.
The court rejected all claims brought by GPI and ordered it to pay Earthbanc's costs, describing the suit as lacking "merit, legal foundation and substance on the face of it," according to a press statement issued by Earthbanc.
GPI's founder, Festus Kiplagat, disputes the outcome.
"Justice was delayed and denied with suspicious rescheduling of judgement dates," he told Impact Loop in a text message.
Kiplagat says GPI intends to appeal the court decision.
“We are moving back to court to launch an appeal against the unfair ruling,” he said.
Earthbanc did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.
A troubled project
An Impact Loop investigation found in February that the Regeneration Kenya scheme had been quietly wound down, amid allegations that Earthbanc poorly managed the project, deliberately inflated the number of trees it had planted, and sidelined local communities.
Sources close to a separate Earthbanc-run project in the Meghalaya region of India – backed by $71m from AstraZeneca – told Impact Loop that tree survival rates were as low as 12% in some areas, with similar allegations of local partners being sidelined.
Earthbanc denied wrongdoing across both projects when that story was published in February.