Court orders blogger Nyakundi to pull down defamatory articles against politician

Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi in a past appearance in court. He has been ordered to pull down defamatory posts against politician Steve Mbogo. [File, Standard]

A Nairobi court has ordered blogger Cyprian Nyakundi to pull down all the alleged defamatory articles in his website against politician Steve Mbogo.

Lady Justice Jackie Kamau on Thursday barred Nyakundi from publishing the alleged defamatory piece against politician Steve Mbogo and his wife.

Nyakundi published the articles on his website, twitter and Facebook pages on 28th Nov 2018.

Lady Justice Jackie Kamau while issuing the orders said she has looked at the file and no response to the application and therefore she allowed the orders as prayed.

“An injunction was issued restraining the respondent from publishing defamatory words against the applicant,” said Kamau.

Politician Steve Mbogo and his wife Sabrina Jamal have sued blogger Cyprian Nyakundi over defamatory publication.

Through lawyer Velma Maumo, the two claim that Nyakundi has published and continues to publish defamatory articles touching on his marriage.

The two are seeking orders to have Nyakundi compelled to immediately retract all defamatory contents on his website.

“Nyakundi has negatively edited photos of Mbogo for his own political and economic gain,” said Maumo in court documents.

He claims that as a result of the defamatory publication, other bloggers and users of online platform have shared and turned to the subject of discussion.

“The applicant’s reputation has been immensely damaged and have been turned into objects of cyber bullying unless the orders are granted at least in the interim to curtail further dissemination of the defamatory articles written by Nyakundi,” said Mbogo.

Mbogo says that there is no Jurisdiction for Nyakundi to publish such an article concerning him because there is no evidence to support the allegations.

He claims that Nyakundi’s website is accessed by millions of people around the world and he has not retracted the said information and there is no prejudice he will suffer if the orders sought are granted.

Mbogo recently warned bloggers and journalists who he claimed have been tarnishing his name online.

 “For the past two years, I have been a victim of cyber-bullying and slander," he said.

“Many bloggers and journalists have accused and attacked me falsely but I have always kept cool because they always made me stronger and my success has always proved them wrong."

 “Shockingly, they have now taken the war to my family; just recently a blogger published an article accusing my wife of cheating on me and stating that I took a girl to Europe to ease my frustrations, a lady I don’t even know! These statements are completely false and have caused a lot of pain to me and my family.”

Mbogo has been married to Sabrina since 2016.