A Nairobi court has ordered the Standard Group, parent company of the television station KTN, to pay Ivory Media Limited more than 20 million Kenyan shillings after finding the media company breached contracts for two popular programmes.

The Milimani Commercial Magistrates Court ordered Standard Group to pay Ivory Media Limited, a subsidiary of Insignia Productions, a total of Ksh20,202,864 following a breach-of-contract dispute involving the programmes Junior and My Two Wives.

The case, filed as Ivory Media Limited v Standard Group PLC under Case No. MCCOMMSU/E339/2023, centred on Ksh13,525,320 in unpaid licence fees.

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Ivory Media said it entered into programme licence agreements with Standard Group on October 10, 2020, and January 1, 2021, giving KTN broadcasting rights to the two programmes.

Under the agreements, Ivory Media was required to supply four episodes of each programme every month, while Standard Group was to settle the licence fees quarterly within 90 days of receiving invoices.

According to the court record, Ivory Media delivered the contracted episodes and Standard Group aired the programmes throughout the agreed licensing periods. The producer, however, said the broadcaster failed to settle the outstanding fees despite discussions, correspondence and proposed payment arrangements between 2021 and 2022.

Standard Group denied liability in its defence and argued that it was not a party to the agreements.

Ivory Media challenged that position by producing the original contracts, which carried the companies’ stamps and signatures of Philippe Bresson, then a director of Ivory Media, and Orlando Lyomu, the Group CEO of Standard Group.

In a judgment delivered on August 13, 2026, Senior Principal Magistrate A. Nyoike rejected Standard Group’s defence.

The court found that simply denying the agreements was insufficient where the documents produced in court bore the companies’ seals and signatures. The party challenging their validity, the court held, would have to establish that the signatory lacked authority or that the documents were fraudulent.

The court also relied on Standard Group’s conduct after the agreements were executed.

Correspondence from the company’s finance department acknowledged the outstanding balance, discussed payment arrangements and recorded partial payments, according to the judgment.

“It is inconceivable that a company would negotiate a payment plan, reconcile a statement of account, and make part-payments running into millions of shillings in respect of an agreement to which it claims to be a stranger,” Magistrate Nyoike said.

The court further found that Ivory Media’s statement of account showed an outstanding balance of Ksh13,525,320. The figure was also supported by an internal reconciliation undertaken by Standard Group, according to the judgment.

The court subsequently entered judgment for Ivory Media for the principal amount of Ksh13,525,320, together with interest at court rates.

The award included Ksh5,677,544 in interest calculated at 14% a year over three years and Ksh1 million in legal costs, bringing the total decretal amount to Ksh20,202,864.

Standard Group has not publicly commented on the outcome.

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