Court orders officials to stop referring to Nairobi businessman as insane

By Isaiah Lucheli

Nairobi, Kenya: A businessman who has accused an MP of illegally selling land valued at over Sh1 billion in Nairobi has received orders restraining government officials from referring to him as insane.

Benson Ritho moved to the High Court under a certificate of urgency seeking orders to restrain the Registrar of Titles in the Ministry of Lands Sarah Maina from publishing defamatory statements or comments of any manner against him.

High Court judge Hatari Waweru issued a temporary injunction directed at the registrar (Maina) restraining her servants, employees agents and persons acting under her instructions from publishing any further defamatory statements concerning Ritho.

Ritho had told the court to issue orders restraining the registrar from referring to him as mad to block her from persisting with the illegal and unlawful action against him.

“The plaintiff continues to suffer immensely as a result of the said defamatory remarks and it is thus imperative that the injunctive orders sought here in be granted. The injury to the plaintiff’s feeling and reputation cannot be in any way compensated,” he submitted through the court documents.

He submitted that as far as he was concerned, he had not been adjudged as being of unsound mind by any medical practitioner or court of law.

Late father

Ritho who is the administrator of the estate of his late father Joseph Maingi Muriithi accused the registrar of refusing to register a parcel of land following his application on the grounds that he was insane.

“I am very aggrieved by the decision of the respondents to refuse to register the said application on the grounds advanced. I have reason to believe that the said decision was purely malicious going by the conduct of the registrar,” he said.