Sunday, February 26, 2023 – Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga is bitter with the Daily Nation Newspaper.
This follows a story it carried yesterday over Raila Odinga’s African Union job saga, which the former PM has dismissed as mendacious and misleading.
He now wants a public apology from the Daily Nation Newspaper or else he will sue them.
Through his legal team Awele Jackson Advocates, Raila issued a cease-and-desist letter to Daily Nation over the story.
According to the letter dated Saturday, February 25, Raila’s team argued that the information published by the newspaper was false, and malicious and damaged his character.
The article published on the newspaper’s front cover titled ‘Treasury Paid Billions for Raila’s 2 AU offices’ claimed that Ksh2 billion of the taxpayers’ money may have been used to bankroll Raila’s role as AU’s High Representative for Infrastructure and Development.
As a result, the lawyers demanded that the paper publish an apology for running what they argued was a one-sided story.
“You will publish an equivocal apology and/or retraction of the defamatory publication against our client with commensurate prominence in the print and electronic media within 24 hours from the date thereof,” the letter read in part.
Raila’s lawyers further argued that the media house did not seek clarification from the former Prime Minister’s team.
“For the record, the above allegations are entirely false. Had you made the effort to ascertain the accurate factual position from the African Union before publishing the article?”
“You would have established that all expenses related to our client’s role were borne directly by the African Union by NEPAD and partly by our client,” read the letter in parts.
However, in the article, the media house claimed it reached out to Dennis Onyango, Raila’s Spokesperson. He (Onyango) refuted the claims, adding that taxpayers did not fund the role.
The Kenyan DAILY POST.