NTV journalists Edmond Nyabola and Emmanuel Juma have been summoned by a Nairobi court after they were found guilty of contempt.
In the matter, the Child Welfare Society is listed as the plantiff while the Nation Media Group is listed as the defendant.
Senior Resident Magistrate D.O Mbeja summoned the duo after he found them guilty of airing matters related to Child Welfare Society of Kenya, despite having been blocked by the court.
Mbeja ruled that the Nation Media Group disobeyed court orders after they had been served while the court required them not to air any story about the plaintiff.
“The court of the respondents is malicious and calculated to embarrass the plaintiff and children under it’s care,” the magistrate declared.
The feature ‘Sins of Saviours’ was aimed at exposing child abuse and looting at the CWSK, a state corporation charged with the responsibility of taking care of vulnerable children in the country.
In court documents, the organisation had accused NTV of infringing on the rights of the minors, even after the station gave them (CWSK) a chance to respond to the investigation’s findings.
During the probe into the matter, CWSK CEO Irene Murithi threatened the station and sought the intervention of the court, after which the media house was barred from airing the story on September 1, 2019.
“She left no doubt that she is prepared to do everything and anything to ensure the story does not air by making unethical or virtuous to us, claiming she knows people in high places.
“When all that did not work, she mischievously went to the children’s court, and using falsehoods and assumptions, got orders on Friday, barring us from airing the feature, Sins of Saviours, this Sunday,” Nyabola had stated.
After a month-long battle, the media house was allowed to air the feature on Tuesday, October 1.
However, minutes before the broadcast, NTV was yet again blocked from the airing the exposé but the station went ahead and aired the story.
