(NDIMA/IFEX) – According to NDIMA, a freelance journalist has been stopped from publishing articles or information on three brothers. On 2 July 1998, the High Court sitting in Nairobi directed that the order remain in force until the suit filed by the brothers, Mr. Gideon Kaburu Mwobobia, Mr. John Karimu, and Mr. Erastus Mwongera, against […]
(NDIMA/IFEX) – According to NDIMA, a freelance journalist has been stopped
from publishing articles or information on three brothers. On 2 July 1998,
the High Court sitting in Nairobi directed that the order remain in force
until the suit filed by the brothers, Mr. Gideon Kaburu Mwobobia, Mr. John
Karimu, and Mr. Erastus Mwongera, against the journalist, Mr. Kenneth
Baigogu Gitobu, is heard and determined .
The three, through lawyer Mbichi Mboroki, claim that the journalist, who is
based in Meru District, and Profile Publishers Limited defamed them through
malicious articles on them, the Government, and the President.
The brothers (Mr. Mwobobia – chairman of the Meru Central Farmers
Cooperative Union, Mr. Karimu – a businessman, and Mr. Mwongera – a
Permanent Secretary) want the journalist to pay them damages.
The journalist, Mr. Gitobu, told the court that he had filed documents in
which he claims allegations he had made against the three were true. The
Judge directed that the documents can be argued when the case comes up for
hearing.
Mr. Mboroki has, in the complaint filed in court, said his three clients
also want the High Court to issue an order directing Mr. Gitobu and the
publishers not to publish any other defamatory articles about them. He says
the words used in a publication about the three brothers were intended to
injure their reputation and malign them.
The lawyer says in the affidavit that the publication by the defendant
claimed that Mr. Mwobobia, who has headed the cooperative company since
1990, allegedly misappropriated public funds and misused finances kept with
the Meru branch of the Kenya Finance Bank.
The three brothers also claim that between 30 January and 12 February 1998,
the journalist published a report titled “A Dossier and Syndicated Feature
on the Anatomy of Bribery and Corruption in Meru.” They claim the report was
handed over to the Head of State, the Minister for Cooperative Development,
judges, newspapers, and radio and television stations in the country, among
other people and organisations.
In her brief ruling yesterday, Justice Owuor stated that, after going
through the filed documents, she was convinced that she should grant the
second prayer of relief in the complaint, which sought to stop the
journalist from publishing any article about the trio. She directed that
the suit be heard on 16 July 1998.
Last month, another High Court judge, Mr. Justice Sam Oguk, disqualified
himself from hearing the suit and the matter had to be taken to the High
Court registry, which fixed the hearing for yesterday before Justice Owuor.
