ODM and opposition leader Raila Odinga has threatened to sue Standard Media Group if they do not apologise and retract an alleged defamatory article published on its daily newspaper.
Odinga has given the media house owned by the Moi family up to October 16 to apologise, or meet him in court for defamation.
In the article published a day ago, the Standard alleged that Raila’s car, a Range Rover registration KCS 002D had been seized by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), over suspicions that it had been stolen or duty had not been paid.
“A search at the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) for registration particulars of the vehicle did not yield any results as the DCI boss George Kinoti-led team seeks answers on its ownership, but according to KRA records the car is linked to Raila,” the paper reported.
According to the politician, the article was meant to demean him, py painting him as a fraudster.
“Your publication was baseless, unjustified and deliberately slanted to inflict the greatest possible harm, damage, injury, embarrassment, ridicule and contempt to our client in his personal capacity and professional image…Your defamatory publication has caused extensive damage to the reputation of our client,” said Raila’s lawyer A.T Oluoch in the demand letter.
Raila through the lawyer denied knowing the car, which the paper said that it was unable to verify the owner.
