A Nairobi tycoon has sued Governor Mike Sonko over an explosive phone recording that leaked online last month.
Mike Kamau, who owns Nairobi’s Marble Arch Hotel, accuses Governor Sonko of leaking the recording of their phone conversation on social media.
The billionaire says the recording, where Sonko is heard threatening and insulting him, has made him receive social media attacks that have damaged his reputation and image.
Sonko was unhappy with Kamau’s role in the demolition of houses erected on a 20-acre parcel of land in Nairobi’s Kayole estate last month.
Muthithi Investments Ltd, owned by Kamau, started demolishing the houses after it obtained a court order to evict occupants from the plot, which he claims to be his.
Sonko said Kamau should have consulted his office before flattening the structures and threatened to revenge by demolishing his (Kamau) hotel, which he claims is partly built on grabbed land.
“Pending the hearing of the application inter-parties, a temporary injunction be issued directed at the defendant restraining him from making any defamatory statements and/or making any defamatory publications in reference to the plaintiffs,” reads one of the orders sought by Kamau.
The businessman wants the court to order Governor Sonko to pull down a Facebook post where he accuses him of using forged documents to obtain demolition order from the court. He further claims that the leaked call recording was meant to paint him as someone who is violent and corrupt.
“The continued defamation has spread through social media like wildfire to the extent on December 20, 2018, the 1st plaintiff (Mr. Kamau’s) name was trending on Twitter following the circulation of the (call recording) video,” says the businessman.
He pleads with the court to grant him damages for libel, slander, and loss of business.
More than 10,000 families whose houses were demolished at Nyama Villa Estate in Kayole, have since sued Kamau for compensation.
You go to pay for it on…
You go to pay for it on every turn when you are a young gun with a quick fuse. But on the grand scheme of things you had to do what you had to do to the to tame the bushnessmsn.