Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, through his legal team Awele Jackson Advocates, issued a cease and desist letter to Daily Nation over an article carried on the cover of Saturday Nation, on Saturday, February 25.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, lawyer Jackson Awele, confirmed that his firm authored the cease and desist letter.
According to the letter dated Saturday, February 25, Raila's team argued that the information published by the newspaper was false, and malicious and damaged his character.
The article published on the newspaper's front cover titled 'Treasury Paid Billions for Raila's 2 AU offices' claimed that Ksh2 billion of the taxpayers' money may have been used to bankroll Raila's role as AU's High Representative of Infrastructure.
As a result, the lawyers demanded that the paper publishes an apology for running what they argued was a one-sided story.
"You will publish an equivocal apology and/or retraction of the defamatory publication against our client with commensurate prominence in the print and electronic media within 24 hours from the date thereof," the letter read in part.
Raila's lawyers further argued that the media house did not seek clarification from the former Prime Minister's team.
"For the recorded, the above allegations are entirely false. Had you made the effort to ascertain the accurate factual position from the African Union before publishing the article?"
"You would have established that all expenses related to our client's role were borne directly by the African Union by NEPAD and partly by our client," read the letter in parts.
However, in the article, the media house claimed it reached out to Dennis Onyango, Raila's Spokesperson. He (Onyango) refuted the claims adding that taxpayers did not fund the role.
“Odinga never had an AU office and staff in Nairobi. He was using his private office at Capitol Hill," Nation quoted Onyango.
Onyango's remarks aligned with Raila's legal team, who emphasised that no known premises in the Republic of Kenya were established for the AU High Representative for Infrastructure.
Daily Nation had not responded to the demand letter by the time of this publication.
