Transport and Roads Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei are headed for a legal tussle over alleged defamation, which sprung from a multi-billion Chinese road tender.
In a demand letter seen by K24 Digital, Murkomen threatened to sue Senator Cherargei for tainting him negatively on November 24, 2023, during a press conference at the Senate building over corruption accusations amounting to Ksh15.3 billion.
CS Murkomen says that the Senator issued the defamatory statements against him to the media following the allegations that the CS collected over Ksh15.3 billion ($100M) bribe from a Chinese Company, China Wu Yi early in the year.
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According to the letter from Murkomen's lawyer Elisha Ongoya, the alleged defamatory statements were made against his Client (CS Murkomen) who had been summoned to the Senate to explain the state of roads and other infrastructures in the country.
“The said offensive words tend to lower the reputation of our client in the estimation of the ordinary, just and right-thinking members of the society. The word are, therefore, libellous of our client,” Ongoya states in the demand letter.
He adds that the statements were meant to indicate that "the CS has committed a crime of receiving a bribe from China Wu Yi, is corrupt, lacks integrity is unpatriotic, has betrayed the electorate, has covered up wrongdoing by seeking the protection of Parliament, and, is unfit to hold public office."
Murkomen further says that the statements by Senator Cherargei were meant to expose him to humiliation, hatred, contempt and ridicule.
"The above words are in fact false and the same were published by you maliciously since you had no scintilla of evidence to believe in their truth either at the time you uttered them or at all.
"Further evidence of malice lies in the fact that you have sustained the use of similarly false words portraying our client in bad light in public forums sometimes using your local dialect." the CS lawyer states in the letter.
Murkomen's demands
Murkomen now wants the Senator to accept that he has actually published the offending words against him and proceed to tender a public apology within a week.
"We have instructions that we demand, which we hereby do, that within seven days from the date of this letter, you accept liability for defamation to give way to negotiations and tender an unqualified apology in writing to our client through the same channels through which you published the offending words," reads the letter by Lawyer Ongoya
Should Senator Cherargei fail, the lawyer said they sue him for damages.
“Take further notice that if you fail to comply with the terms of this demand within the time specified above, we have firm and unequivocal instructions to institute court proceedings against you without any further reference to you. This will be at your peril as to costs and other incidentals attendant to such court action.” Murkomen lawyer states.
