National Assembly Minority Whip Junet Mohammed has been ordered to pay Nyali Member of Parliament Mohammed Ali, popularly known as Moha Jicho Pevu Ksh6 million as damages for defamation.
The Nyali MP filed a suit against Junet Mohammed in October 2022 over defamatory posts on social media platform X, formerly known as twitter.
He told the court that the post was meant to hurt him and even made headlines.
In court papers seen by The Kenya Times, Moha argued that the statement, which claimed that he was involved in sodomy, subjected him to public ridicule and contempt, therefore undermining his credibility as a leader, a journalist and a right-thinking person in the society, exposing him to hatred.
He stated that the defamatory tweet used the identity of his show Jicho Pevu which was used as a moniker to refer to him.
“That the defendant used the innuendo to assassinate his character and that the tweet was a deliberate defamatory imputation by the defendant aimed at discrediting him and lowering his character in the estimation of right-thinking persons in the society and subsequently expose him to hatred, contempt and ridicule and injure his reputation in his personal life, public life, trade and profession,” the court documents read in part.
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Arguments Made by Moha Jicho Pevu
According to the investigative journalist, the post attracted 1, 756 comments, 233 tweets, 1, 075 retweets and 4, 954 likes from different users online.
Also, he revealed that he called Junet to understand why he had made such comments, knowing full well that it went against his Islamic faith. In response Junet said that he called ten people who confirmed his claims.
“That out of the 15 Nyali Constituency staff none goes by the name alleged by the defendant. In his view the defendant’s intention was to defame him since he had nothing to do with the altercation between the said lady and the defendant
“And that he was dragged into the defendant’s twitter wars and his name tarnished,” added the statement.
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The Decision Made by the Court
According to the court, it based its decision by determining whether the words complained of had injured the reputation, character or dignity of Moha Jicho Pevu.
“The words must be shown to have been construed by the audience as defamatory and not simply abusive. The court went further to hold that the words must be malicious.
“There must be evidence of malice and lack of justifiable cause to utter the words complained of. Evidence showing the defendant knew the words complained of were false or did not care to verify can be evidence of malice,” the statement added.
The judge also noted that the post was yet to be pulled down and there was no apology offered by the defendant.
“In the instant case I am in agreement with the plaintiff that the tweet in the natural and ordinary meaning was understood by members of public to mean that the plaintiff is a man of loose morals who engages in sodomy which is a criminal offence under our laws and thus a criminal who is not fit to be a national leader.
“I find an award of Ksh5, 000, 000 to be appropriate in general damages and a further award of Ksh1, 000, 000 being aggravated and exemplary damages. In addition, the plaintiff will have the costs of this suit plus interest at court rates,” ruled the judge.
