A Magistrates Court in Nairobi has dismissed a real estate developer's application that sought to gag activist Boniface Mwangi and three others from publishing any material related to the case.
Magistrate S.A. Opande ruled that he could restrain the defendants because the developer did not attach the said defamatory content as evidence.
The judge also contended that the petitioner failed to prove that the activist published the video, hence failing to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.
“I have taken note that the video which the Applicant alleges is defamatory, is not before the court, and by reason of this , I do not have its content and thus cannot examine whether the contents therein are defamatory,'' the judge ruled.
''I have said enough to show the threshold for the grant of injunction has not been reached. It is hereby ordered that the notice of motion applicant dated 14th March 2023 is hereby dismissed.''
The court has yet to set the hearing date for the main suit.
‘’I know that this is only the first step, as we still have to fight the main suit at the hearing, but I am emboldened because I know the truth is on our side,’’ Mwangi stated.
According to Mwangi, in 1997, a 70-year-old widow bought a property at Nairobi's South B Estate and registered it under her company to serve as its headquarters.
In his claims, the activist said the evictors forged all eviction documents except the court order which he observed was authentic.
Mwangi in a previous statement had accused the private developer of grabbing land in South B, Nairobi which he claimed belongs to a widow.
In the video shared by Boniface Mwangi on the activist's platform titled Msema Kweli, the lady narrated how she was illegally evicted from the land she bought back in 1997.
Earlier in the day, Mwangi had taken to social media to lash out at the private developer.
‘’We were served with a suit where the private developer alleged that we had defamed him,’’ stated Mwangi.
The activist claimed that the orders sought by the private developer were meant to stop him from calling him out for land grabbing.
