Standard Group Ordered To Pay Ksh6.5M To Ex-Police Officer
The court also issued a mandatory injunction for the defendants in the case to write, print and publish an apology.
Former traffic police officer Linda Okello who went viral close to nine years ago has been awarded Ksh6.5 million in damages, having won a defamation case against Standard Group Limited.
A High Court sitting in Nairobi on Wednesday, August 23 accused the Mombasa Road-based media house, an editor of its subsidiary, Nairobian Newspaper, and a Writer of defaming Okello by publishing an article that degraded her public image by using photos she had shared on her social media pages without her consent.
The former police officer filed the civil case at the High Court in Nairobi in 2014, seeking among other things, general damages for libel, aggravated and exemplary damages, and an injunction restraining the Standard Group and its journalists from putting up defamatory publications against her.
Outside the Milimani Law Courts. /FILE
Justice Asenath Nyaboke Ongeri granted her wishes as well as barred Standard Group PLC and its employees from publishing defamatory words or innuendo similar to what was published in the Nairobian newspaper.
"Judgment be and is hereby entered in favour of the plaintiff against the defendants jointly and severally in the sum of Ksh6,500,000 together with costs of this suit and interests at court rates from the date of this judgment until payment in full," Justice Ongeri ruled.
The court also issued a mandatory injunction for the defendants in the case to write, print and publish an apology.
Okello was represented in the case by a lawyer and Kisumu Senator Tom Ojienda, who reacted to the court ruling against the newspaper which tarnished her reputation by way of publishing her image.