Baringo Senator Gideon Moi disclosed how he was affected by a report that alleged that he had fraudulently been awarded a tender by the Kenya Ports Authority.
The Standard on Friday, January 10, reported that Senator Moi wrote to Daily Nation, which had run the story on Friday, January 3, demanding an apology from the outlet.
Through, TripleOKLaw Advocates, Gideon lamented that the story unfairly linked him to two companies - Mitchell Cotts and Nairobi Inland Container Depot (ICD) which landed the tenders without applying.
He argued that the story injured his reputation, portraying him as a person who engages in fraudulent business and is not fit to hold a public office.
"As a consequence of your actions, our client's reputation has been brought to public hatred, ridicule, contempt, scandal and odium and has been disgraced, humiliated, subjected to untold embarrassment and ostracised for which it holds you fully and wholly jointly and severally responsible and liable," the letter to Daily Nation read.
"We demand immediate and unequivocal admission of liability for defamation arising from the said publication as well as a suitable and fitting apology to be approved by us and given as much prominence as the defamatory publication in the next issue of your publication and full retraction of the text and tenor of the offending article," it added.
Gideon further lamented that he was not consulted on the report.
The story had also alleged that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations initiated the probe in December 2019, with senior KPA officials including Managing Director Daniel Manduku and Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner for Customs, Kevin Safari, reportedly appearing before the agency for grilling.
Another report by Daily Nation on Thursday, January 9, claimed that Senator Moi was grilled by DCI detectives, a claim the legislator's close ally denied.
"Moi was nowhere near Thika Road. He was not summoned and was not questioned. I was with him from 9 am in the morning and I can tell you for a fact he was not there. And anyway he is not linked to Mitchell Cotts after all," a senior KANU official responded to the outlet.
