John Majau
29 November 2001
The High Court in Meru has ordered the East African Standard to pay Charles Kariuki and Company Advocates Sh20 million in damages.
Kariuki had sued the Standard Limited for general and special damages for defamation contained in an article that appeared in The Big Issue insert of December 6, 1999 titled Crooked Lawyers.
The article described Kariuki as one of the crooked lawyers who misappropriated client's money awarded by insurance companies as compensation in respect of road accident cases.
The Association of Kenyan Insurers and several other witnesses admitted supplying information to the The Big Issue but after going through court exhibits they all concurred that Kariuki was never directly mentioned in any of the reports released.
Before the Meru High Court judge Mr Justice William Tuiyot, Kariuki argued that he has never been a crooked lawyer or misappropriated insurance or client money.
Kariuki said he has his own firm with the head office based in Meru town, branches in Embu and Maua town and two assistant and 12 paralegal staff.
He said the article clearly portrayed him as being unprofessional, fraudulent, a criminal fit to be in jail and dishonest, thus injuring his character integrity and reputation in the way of his practice.
He further argued that due to the said bad publicity concerning him and his firm, companies and individuals who used to be the backbone of his workload have diverted to other firms of advocates.
In his judgement, Tuiyot said Kariuki has proved the words crooked lawyers who misappropriate client funds are a defamation of the highest degree seriously injuring his integrity, reputation and affecting his practice.
Due to the wide leadership of the paper, Tuiyot said the publication affected his legal practice forcing him to close down Maua branch, reduce his assistants and members of paralegal staff while corporate clients, insurance companies and individuals pulled out of his firm.
Tuiyot said his legal colleagues and public suspect him as a dishonest person and its very hard to erase the damage made from their minds adding the publication has affected the lawyer health wise.
Since the lawyer depends on the legal practice for his livelihood, Tuiyot said the article has completely narrowed his chances for legal practice in this country and abroad.
Due to the status and standing of the lawyer in society, and the loss of business because of the damaging article, Tuiyot ordered the East African Standard to pay Sh20 million in damages plus the cost of the suit. The East African Standard will appeal the decision.
The award against the East African Standard is the latest in recent cases where courts are hitting the media with eight-figure sums in damages.
The Nation Media Group was on September 7, ordered by the High Court to pay a Nairobi lawyer Sh10.2 million for libel, reports Tabitha Onyinge.
Justice Kasanga Mulwa ruled that the newspaper pays Mr John Patrick Machira the money for defamation contained in a picture caption published in 1995.
On December 22, 2000, Commissioner of Assize Alnashir Visram ordered pathologist Dr Ian West and journalist Chester Stern, who co-authored a book to pay Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott a total Sh30 million in damages.
On Tuesday, publishers of the Kenya Times and a former editor-in-chief were ordered to pay a law firm Sh10 million for libel.
Mr Justice Alnashir Visram awarded lawyers Waruhiu and Muite Sh8 million in general damages and Sh2 million in aggravated damages plus costs.
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