Kivuitu team loses attempt to gag ‘The Standard’

By Evelyn Kwamboka

An effort by former Electoral Commission of Kenya commissioners to gag the Standard Group has flopped.

High Court Judge Hatari Waweru declined to issue interim orders stopping the media house from reporting matters touching on the former commissioners’ role in the 2007 presidential election, saying it would be an undesirable.

The judge said former ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu and 21 commissioners were the central players in the disputed 2007 presidential election results.

"They (commissioners) were the ones constitutionally charged with the responsibility of supervising and conducting a free and fair elections," he ruled.

The defamation case filed by Kivuitu and his team will now go to full trial without any orders stopping publications touching on their role in the disputed elections. Yesterday, the judge ruled that two applications filed by the former ECK officials revolved around occurrences in our national history that was unprecedented.

Poll results

"The political polarisation that resulted from the disputed presidential election results is still palpable.

In the two applications, Kivuitu and company were seeking interim orders stopping The Standard Group from publishing, disseminating or preparing further defamatory words against them.

They were also seeking a mandatory injunction directing the company to publish a retraction and apology in its newspapers with similar prominence, and acceptable to the former officials.

The applications were on grounds that the media house had allegedly published false information about them and that since when the case was filed, last year, the company has continued to file the reports without any justification.

They had named the company, its former Group Editorial Director Kwendo Opanga and the current Quality and Production Managing Editor Okech Kendo as the respondents.

On its part, the company opposed the applications to gag it.

Filed reports

In its defence, it filed documents and reports, which include the one prepared by the Commonwealth Observe Group to the Kenya General Election, a preliminary statement by the EU Election Observation mission and the report by the East African Commission Observation mission.

The company pleaded justification in writing and publishing the words complained of by the former officials.

It argued in its defence that the violence that stemmed directly from the disputed results announced by the plaintiffs was the consequence of their failure in the performance of their constitutional duties.

The company told the court that is has evidence to prove that the violence started after the presidential election results were announced.