Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma has taken to social media to celebrate a Ksh11 million payout after winning a defamation case against The Standard Group.
Kaluma had sued the media house for an article published in one of its publications, The Nairobian, in which salacious allegations against the MP were made.
The media house will now be required to pay the lawmaker the Ksh11 million in damages as well as interest, after he won the lawsuit filed in 2018.
"The Nairobian, a tabloid of The Standard, wrote a false and defamatory article referring to me and my family. The High Court has ordered Standard to pay me Ksh 11,000,000 plus costs and interests for defamation in their Nairobian newspaper," the statement read in part.
"I will appeal to have the amount increased to a level commensurate with the damage done to my reputation and my family by the publication."
Despite the huge payout, the vocal MP said that he would be appealing to the court for more money and filing another lawsuit for the continued publication of the article.
After he gets paid, the MP plans to donate it to a charity of his choice.
According to the court ruling seen by Kenyans.co.ke, the newspaper had published an article that entangled his family, including his two children, infringing their privacy.
As such, the court ordered a total of Ksh11 million to be paid to him, with Ksh10 million awarded to him for infringement of the privacy of his children. Ksh1 million was awarded to him since the paper refused to apologise.
"In view of the above, I find that an award of Ksh10 million would be sufficient in light of the fact that the privacy of the plaintiff's two children was also infringed, each in their individual capacity, by the said publication and inflation due to the passage of time," the ruling read in part.
"In this matter, I do find that having had an opportunity to apologise but failed to do so, the defendant was in effect grandstanding and therefore acted improperly. I do find that failure to apologise when demanded justifies an award of damages. With such determination, I do award the plaintiff exemplary damages in the sum of Ksh1 million."
