Kenya Power Board Chairperson Joy Mdivo has threatened to sue the Standard Group after she was named as one of the top government officials engaged in a WhatsApp group allegedly devising means to quell the planned protests.
In a statement on X, hours after The Standard published the claims on the June 24 issue and plastered the damning WhatsApp messages on its front page, Mdivo revealed that she had already spoken to her lawyers of the same.
"I belong to no such WhatsApp group, nor have I made such utterances in public or in private. For The Standard to insinuate that I am planning to kill Kenyans is as untrue as it is defamatory. My lawyers have their instructions," she wrote.
Although not explicitly mentioned as among those with a role in facilitating the infiltration of goons in the planned June 25 protests, hers was one of the messages captured in the WhatsApp group where the plans are allegedly being hatched.
Specifically, the screenshot bearing her name suggested that they keep the tagline on "propaganda media" ongoing to discredit media houses.
"By the way, that tagline of genocide media is really pinching them," one read, followed by another, "inawauma sana (It angers them so much)."
She allegedly added, "That tagline has to go on all the propaganda posters against Citizen."
Besides being a board chair, she is also an advocate of the High Court, a human rights defender and was among the nominees to replace the late Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson Wafula Chebukati.
Elsewhere, former Citizen TV reporter Kendagor Obadiah has distanced himself from his ex-wife Antonellah Kakuko, who has been named as the driving force behind the WhatsApp group.
In a statement, Kendagor clarified that he had been married to her until the marriage fell apart, after which they lived separately for five years before officially divorcing in 2023.
Despite this, he claimed that Kenyans had leaked his number, and he was being bombarded with hate despite not sharing any of her views.
"I have tried as much as possible to maintain calm while Kenyans whom I don’t know how they got my number are sending me greetings in torrents. Good people, I am not Antonellah Kakuko and I don’t share her interests," he wrote on Facebook.
"Whatever Antonellah posts is entirely on her and her political associates. I must put it on record that together we have a daughter who is only 8 years old. On her behalf, I want to state that she bears no responsibility for what her mother does or says," he stated.
Creative Economy Director Dennis Itumbi also took issue with the Standard Group for running the story, alleging that it was a mockery of what journalism and the newsroom are supposed to be.
