Standard Group Ordered To Pay MP Ksh11 Million After Losing Court Case

Homa Bay Town Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Kaluma took to social media to celebrate securing a Ksh11 million award after defeating The Standard Group in a defamation suit.

Kaluma had taken the media company to court over a story published in The Nairobian that carried “false and defamatory” claims about him. The High Court ruled in his favour, directing the company to pay him Ksh11 million plus interest.

“The Nairobian, a tabloid of The Standard, wrote a false and defamatory article referring to me and my family. The High Court has ordered Standard to pay me Ksh 11,000,000 plus costs and interests for defamation in their Nairobian newspaper,” his statement said.

A photo of Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma. /THE STAR

He added that he intends to push for an even higher payout: “I will appeal to have the amount increased to a level commensurate with the damage done to my reputation and my family by the publication.”

Kaluma also revealed he’d file an additional suit over the continued circulation of the story — and once the money comes through, he plans to donate it to a charity of his choosing.

Court documents seen by Viral Tea show that the article had violated the privacy of his family, including his two children. 

The judge awarded Ksh10 million for the privacy breach and another Ksh1 million because the paper declined to apologise.

“In view of the above, I find that an award of Ksh10 million would be sufficient in light of the fact that the privacy of the plaintiff's two children was also infringed, each in their individual capacity, by the said publication and inflation due to the passage of time,” the ruling noted.

On the extra award, the court added: “In this matter, I do find that having had an opportunity to apologise but failed to do so, the defendant was in effect grandstanding and therefore acted improperly.

"I do find that failure to apologise when demanded justifies an award of damages. With such determination, I do award the plaintiff exemplary damages in the sum of Ksh1 million," the court ruled.

Standard Group is no stranger to losing court cases. In 2023, it lost a defamation case worth Ksh9 million against former Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, who donated the entire proceedings to charity on Saturday, December 23. 

The High Court had ruled that a story published against Namwamba by the Nairobian in 2018 defamed him and awarded him Ksh9 million as damages.

According to Namwamba, the Standard Group confessed to having published a story based on fake sources and believed the stories were true, only to later find out that the interviewees were imposters and the information was false.

“May the Ksh9 million awarded to me as damages serve as yet another stark lesson to journalists and the media to maintain fidelity to the straight and narrow of responsible reporting anchored on fact and not actuated by malice or recklessness,” Namwamba remarked.

A photo of a past copy of The Nairobian newspaper. /KTN