In June, current and former Safaricom CEO sued blogger Nyakundi over a series of articles on his blog. The two filed an injunction under a certificate of urgency over defamatory statements made by Cyprian against the CEOs and the Telco alleging that there was massive corruption at the organisation. These included allegations of suppliers being blacklisted for failure to give kickbacks. He also alleged the former CEO (Michael Joseph) earned the nickname Mr. 10% for seeking 10% kickbacks from suppliers. The court then issued an injunction barring the blogger from mentioning both CEOs in future articles.
The blogger has since the issuance of the injunction written an article on the CEO for which a ruling was issued Thursday. The court found the blogger was in contempt of court for continually publishing material that about the current CEO Bob Collymore which was a violation of the court order previously granted. The blogger will appear in court on January 19th for directions where he will either be jailed, fined or released. On his part Nyakundi said he was not issued with the order barring him from publishing this material according to Business Daily.
In a previous instance, Safaricom had sued the blogger for slander. They had also sought an injunction has been granted prohibiting the blogger from further publishing other defamatory articles about Safaricom & a mandatory injunction to pull down from his blog articles that are defamatory to Safaricom. The court granted the injunction for the same.
Other legal issues grappling the blogger including a suit filed by National Bank of Kenya. The bank had gone to court seeking orders barring the blogger from defaming the bank on his blog or on social media accounts. The bank claimed the articles on Cyprian’s blog were damaging its reputation and thus sought compensation for the damage caused thus far. The court has since granted an injunction barring Nyakundi whether by himself, his agents or his employees from publishing or causing to be published any statements defamatory of the National Bank of Kenya, its shareholders, directors and or employees.
