Former Chief Justice Maraga sues lawyer AhmedNassir

Former Chief Justice David Maraga. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Former Chief Justice David Maraga has sued Lawyer AhmedNasir Abdullahi over a tweet.

In a court application to seen by the Standard Digital, Maraga (the plaintiff) has accused AhmedNasir (the defendant) of defaming him in a post on his (Nassir’s) Twitter account.

“On January 12, the defendant posted, published and circulated a defamatory, libelous, and scandalous tweet on his account. The said tweet attracted 565 comments, 381 retweets and 2500 retweets,” the plaint reads in part.

The former Chief Justice adds that the tweet still appears on AhmedNassir’s Twitter account, which is open to millions of users.

According to Maraga, the words contained in the defendant’s publication were intended, calculated, contrived, and designed to mean and were in fact understood to mean that;

“a) The plaintiff was not a decent Kenyan

b) The plaintiff was not an honest Kenyan

c) The plaintiff was aware of and had knowledge of a Senior Judge of the Supreme Court who had collected a bribe of Sh220, 000,000.”

The now-retired CJ further added that the post was false and malicious.

“The words were presented as the absolute truth designed and intended to disparage, belittle, and injure the plaintiff’s character and reputation as a retired Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya, President of the Supreme Court of Kenya,” Justice Maraga avers.

Lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi. [Kelvin Karani, Standard]

Justice Maraga is the former Chief Justice and Kenya’s 14^th CJ. He retired this year in January, having assumed office in 2016.

AhmedNasir is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, a senior counsel and a former commissioner of the Judicial Service Commission.