Siaya Resident Magistrate Jacob P. Mkala has slapped blogger Michael Oduory aka Mike Ochieng with a fine of KES 3,000,000 in general damages for defaming the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Siaya Public Service Board Mr. Wilfred Nyagudi.
The court also ordered the blogger to pay a further KES 300,000 in exemplary damages besides immediately pulling down and permanently removing from his Facebook and Whatsapp posts memes, images and words that bore the offending defamatory messages.
Mike Ochieng had undertaken a libel and slander campaign in early 2024 against the Public Service Board and its leadership purporting that there were irregularities in employment and flagrant acts of nepotism and corruption.
In his ruling, however, the Senior Magistrate found that the blogger was unable to prove allegations of malpractice either against the Board or its senior leadership.
Claims by the blogger’s lawyer that his expose of Mr. Nyagudi was based on a matter of public interest were trashed as baseless and legally lacking in substance.
Mike had claimed that his words were a fair comment and made in public good. The court established, however that the statements were made after the defendant failed to secure employment with the County Government of Siaya where Nyagudi is the CEO of the board mandated to hire people.
It was established that the blogger did not make the said statement to raise awareness to the public but rather to show that the Plaintiff was a corrupt person with lose morals.
The Defendant had produced a newspaper cutting as evidence in court to demonstrate that indeed there were some dubious employment going on at the County under the watch of Nyagudi.
“I have gone through the newspaper cutting, I note that it does not mention [the name of] Mr. Nyagudi at all. Further, contrary to the Defence assertion that the Plaintiff is the leader of the board, the Chairperson is the boss while the Plaintiff is a Secretary,” said Mkala, adding “It is my holding that the Defendant has failed to demonstrate that the words were true in substance.”
The court, therefore, ordered Mike, besides paying the hefty fine to unequivocally apologize to Mr. Nyagudi through the same social media platforms he published the offending and defamatory statements.
This is the second ruling on defamation against the blogger. In March this year, High Court Judge David Kemei found him guilty of defaming a Member of County Assembly and slapped him with the overzealous fine of KES 20 million.
The blogger’s lawyer appealed the ruling and the matter is still in court only for Senior Magistrate Jacob P. Mkala to find him guilty, yet, again.
The blogger who is active on Facebook and a number of Siaya County Whatsapp groups usually shares privileged information and constantly petitions the County Government of Siaya to statutory oversight authorities. His petitions are often erudite, and framed in legal terminology beyond his actual scholarship aptitude.
To act as a future deterrent, the court ordered Mike Ochieng to meet the full cost of the suit.
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