How Insignia Productions Used Standard Group’s Own Emails to Seal Ksh 20M Court Win

In a ruling that legal experts say should be pinned to the notice board of every media boardroom in Kenya, the Standard Group PLC has been ordered to pay over Ksh 20 million to a production company it once claimed it had never hired.

The Milimani Commercial Magistrate Court delivered the judgment on August 13, 2026, closing a four-year legal saga that began with a handshake over two popular TV shows and ended with a judicial case of corporate denial.

At the heart of the case was not just an unpaid bill, but a failed legal strategy. When Ivory Media Limited a subsidiary of Insignia Productions, led by TV producers Grace Kahaki and Philippe Bresson sued for unpaid license fees for the shows “Junior” and “My Two Wives,“ Standard Group mounted a defence that it was a “stranger to the agreements.“

The court found that defence not just unconvincing, but commercially absurd. According to court documents, the agreements were signed by top executives, including Orlando Lyomu, then Group CEO of Standard Group, and Philippe Bresson, Director of Ivory Media. The contracts bore the company stamps of both parties.

But the blow to Standard Group’s case came from its own finance department. The court noted that internal email correspondence showed Standard Group’s finance team repeatedly acknowledged the outstanding balance, proposed structured payment plans, and even recorded actual part-payments running into millions of shillings between 2021 and 2022.

“It is inconceivable,” the Magistrate observed, “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.”

The court applied the legal principle of estoppel under the Evidence Act, ruling that a company cannot deny a transaction executed on its behalf by an officer with ostensible authority.

The original claim was for Ksh 13,525,320 in unpaid license fees. With interest at 14% per annum over three years and assessed legal fees of Ksh 1,000,000, the total now stands at Ksh 20,202,864.

The dispute dates back to October 2020, when the two companies signed a Program License Agreement for “Junior,” followed by a similar deal for “My Two Wives“ in January 2021. Ivory Media delivered four episodes monthly; Standard Group aired them on KTN. The invoices, however, went unpaid.