Mutahi Ngunyi threatens to sue local daily
Political Scientist and media commentator Mutahi Ngunyi on Thursday threatened to sue The Star newspaper for “under-representing the worth of his company.”
Mr Ngunyi took to twitter on Thursday to announce his plans stating; “I will sue The Star for under-representing the worth of our company. 38M is a cheap consultancy for a security think-tank in 18 countries.”
The political scientist was referring to an article carried by the newspaper that quoted documents of the Central Bank of Kenya which allegedly questioned payment of huge sums of money to private companies.
In the article, the newspaper reported that Mr Ngunyi’s company, The Consulting House, was paid an amount that the political scientist disputes.
The Star news editor Paul Ilado offered to run a correction prominently and replied to Ngunyi’s tweet to ask for the correct amount.
Mr Ilado tweeted, “@MutahiNgunyi Before you sue please give me the correct value of the NYS consultancy. I will gladly carry it prominently tomorrow.”
Mr Ngunyi gave no response.
Newspapers being sued for under-stating the wealth of a prominent person is no new phenomena in media circles. In United States, real estate tycoon Donald Trump filed a libel suit against a reporter who referred to him as a “millionaire”.
The lawsuit was rejected by a New Jersey superior judge. Mt Trump lost an appeal to the decision.