The Court of Appeal on Wednesday ordered Machakos Governor Dr Alfred Mutua to pay Nation Media Group Sh12 Million.
The court overturned a Sh4.5 Million defamation lawsuit that the High Court had awarded Mr Mutua over an article published by NMG.
Governor Mutua sued the media house over a story published in February 2008 when Kenya went through the darkest period after post-election violence rocked the country.
Dr Mutua, then serving in the position of Government Spokesperson, did an interview in Kampala, Uganda with a local radio station discussing the current state of the country.
[caption caption="Dr Mutua"]
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Editors at the Daily Metro, which was owned by NMG, construed that what he stated and did was the position of the government.
Through its lawyer, Guto Mogere, NMG argued that the governor’s words were instigative further characterizing them as careless.
Some of the comments made by Dr Mutua during the talk show appeared to be conflicting with what the judges described as the question posed by Nation Media as to who Dr Mutua spoke for.
Governor Mutua, however, argued that the headline and the story published in the article were defamatory to his character and professional standing.
However, the appellant judges William Ouko, Roselyn Nambuye and Gatembu Kairu ruled that the facts contained in the publication complained of the basis on which the comments were made.
[caption caption="Nation Centre"]
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Furthermore, the bench faulted the decision by High Court Judge George Dulu ascertaining that he failed to consider the legal test on what forms fair comment.
