By Evelyn Kwamboka and Judy Ogutu

The High Court has ruled that an application by The Standard Group seeking to set aside a gagging order obtained by Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is urgent.

Lady Justice Kalpan Rawal said the group’s application should be heard on Monday.

On October 14, the minister obtained temporary orders barring The Standard newspaper from publishing any defamatory articles against him.

The Standard has applied to have these orders set aside on grounds that the minister is trying to gag the Press on matters of national public importance.

The group also said the minister is trying to stop it from expressing opinion and fair comment in matters concerning great public importance and public policy, therefore, gagging or muzzling freedom of speech and expression.

The group also says the minister did not deserve the injunction he obtained, arguing his application was frivolous and misconceived.

The group alleges that the minister obtained orders after concealing or failing to disclose material facts to the court.

It also says the media should be free to report about the minister because he is accountable to the public and is expected to be transparent as a public officer. In the defamation suit, Uhuru claims The Standard published the alleged defamatory articles on October 4 and repeated the same on October 6.

Meanwhile, Uhuru has obtained orders stopping a second media house from publishing issues touching on him.

The orders bar the Nation Media Group from publishing issues on contracts touching on resettlement of internally displaced persons.

Judge Rawal issued the orders pending inter-partes hearing on November 4.

On Friday, his advocate, Mr Desterio Oyatsi, told the court The Nation published the offending article on October 20.

He said the allegations contained in the article accused the minister through his family of engaging in acts of corruption and other offences under the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act 2003.

It was alleged that the company repeated the same allegations on NTV on the same day.

"My family has not sold any land to the Government for resettlement of internally displaced persons or derived any financial benefit from the exercise," he said.

In his affidavit filed in court on Friday, Uhuru said the publications caused immense damage to his reputation and that of his family.

"The publications accuse my family of taking advantage of the plight of internally displaced persons to make quick money," he said.

He stated the publication imputes that he derived a benefit from the above "dubious transactions" through his family.