(NDIMA/IFEX) – On Thursday 3 August 2000, Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott won a libel suit against “The People Daily”. The high court ruled that the paper is liable to the tourism, trade and industry minister for defamation, following the publication of an article in March 1999 that he claims falsely portrayed him as corrupt. At […]
(NDIMA/IFEX) – On Thursday 3 August 2000, Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott won a libel suit against “The People Daily”.
The high court ruled that the paper is liable to the tourism, trade and industry minister for defamation, following the publication of an article in March 1999 that he claims falsely portrayed him as corrupt.
At the same time, Duty Judge Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch struck down the newspaper’s defence paragraphs, saying that the paper failed to convince the court that the contentious article was based on facts. She awarded Biwott the costs of the suit.
Biwott will now move to the next stage, where he is expected to quantify the damages he has suffered following the publication of the story and move to have the court evaluate them and award compensation.
This is the third such case Biwott has won in the last two weeks. On 12 July, the minister was awarded a whoping Sh10million (approx. US$135,135) compensation from two Nairobi bookshops that sold a book carrying a lengthy article implicating him in the 1990 murder of then Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko.
Bookpoint and Bookshop agreed to pay Biwott Sh5million (approx. US$67,567) each and apologise through the print media, to compensate him for the harm inflicted on his reputation by the circulation of the book (Dr. Ian West’s casebook).
A week later, High Court Judge Justice Kassanga Mulwa fined Githunguri Member of Parliament Njehu Gatabaki Shs100,000 (US$1,351) for publishing an article on Biwott. The latter has a court injunction barring Gatabaki from publishing any article about him in the finance magazine.
The contested article was carried in the 10 March 1999 edition on “The People Daily”. It dealt with the controversial multi-billion Turkwell Hydro-Electric Power project. Biwott moved to court and sued the paper’s editor-in-chief, George Mbuggus, and the publishing company, Kalamka Ltd.
He is seeking general damages, damages on the footing of aggravated and exemplary damages, the cost of the suit with interest and an injunction restraining the paper from publishing similar articles.
The lawyer for the newspaper, James Gathaiya, denied in his submission that the contentious article was falsely and maliciously published. He said the story was factual and a fair comment on a matter of public interest.
The multi-million project is said to have been commissioned before a feasibility study was carried out, despite opposition from the then chief secretary, Simeon Nyachae, and some officials in the office of the president.
