Equity Bank has moved to take control of Glee Hotel after efforts to recover a Sh7.75 billion debt entered a new phase, placing the luxury property under administration. The latest development comes after a failed repayment plan and a court fight by businesswoman Mary Wambui Mungai to secure more time to complete a refinancing deal that would have saved the hotel from enforcement action.
The lender announced in a public notice that Kamal Anantroy Bhatt of Anant Bhatt LLP had been appointed as the administrator of Glee Hotel Ltd, with effect from July 6, 2026. The bank also asked any person with claims against the company to forward them to the administrator.
“Pursuant to section 563(2) (b) of the Insolvency Act 2015 of Kenya, notice is hereby given that effective 6th July 2026, Kamal Anantroy Bhatt, of Anant Bhatt LLP, has been appointed as administrator of Glee Hotel Ltd by Equity Bank Kenya Ltd,” the notice read.
The notice added that the administrator had assumed control of the company's operations, assets and affairs.
“By virtue of administration, the powers of the directors of the company in terms of dealing and or transacting with the company’s assets have ceased,” part of the notice stated.
The administration follows a lengthy dispute over money owed to Equity Bank. Earlier this year, the lender entered into a settlement with Wambui and related entities, agreeing to accept Sh7.75 billion as full and final payment of the outstanding debt.
The agreement, recorded on February 24, 2026, required the amount to be paid within 45 days through a refinancing arrangement by KCB Bank Kenya. The agreed amount represented about 85 per cent of the total debt.
The parties also agreed that the payment timeline was a key part of the settlement. If the money was not paid within the agreed period, Equity Bank would be free to cancel the deal and recover the full amount, together with interest and costs, by enforcing the securities held against the loan.
Those securities included several parcels of land where Glee Hotel is built.
After the repayment deadline lapsed without the money being paid, Wambui sought the court's intervention. She asked for an additional 60 days, saying the refinancing process with KCB Bank had reached an advanced stage but had taken longer because of the nature of the transaction and the due diligence required by the financier.
She argued that the extra time would allow the refinancing to be completed and prevent the hotel from being sold.
Equity Bank opposed the request, telling the court that both parties had willingly entered into a binding consent judgment whose terms could not be changed. The lender maintained that the court had become functus officio and had no authority to alter the agreement.
The bank's representative, Anastacia Wanjiru, argued that the application amounted to an attempt to rewrite the consent judgment without Equity Bank's approval.
The court agreed with the lender, finding that it lacked jurisdiction to vary the negotiated settlement. It held that both the agreed amount and the 45-day repayment period formed the basis of the agreement between the parties.
"The defendant's willingness to accept the discounted settlement figure was plainly predicated on payment being made within the stipulated timeframe. To extend that period would be to alter a fundamental term of the bargain struck by the parties," the judge said.
The judge also noted that Wambui had not raised claims of fraud, mistake, misrepresentation, collusion or any other reason that would warrant setting aside the consent judgment. Instead, she had acknowledged both the debt and the validity of the agreement.
The court therefore dismissed the application seeking an additional 60 days.
Even so, the judge reached a different finding on the request to suspend the bank's statutory remedies under the Land Act. While the court accepted that discussions with KCB Bank had gone beyond an expression of interest, it found that there was no conclusive evidence that the refinancing transaction had been completed.
Before the hotel was placed under administration, the High Court had also given Wambui seven days to pay Sh100 million to Equity Bank as a condition for temporarily stopping the planned auction of the property.
"The suspension is on condition that the applicant pays to the respondent a sum of Sh100 million within seven days of the date of this ruling, in default of which the order of suspension shall automatically lapse," the judge said.