Lawsuit could put Kenyan president in history books

Under Kenyan law, a sitting president cannot sue or be sued. But President Mwai Kibaki is so angry over what he says are lies being peddled by the media about his family that he is willing to try a “by-pass.”

President Mwai Kibaki has surprised Kenyans by carrying out his threat to sue a former member of parliament for allegedly defaming him, though under Kenyan law a sitting president cannot sue or be sued. Early this month, the former MP Mr. Paul Muite, raised a storm when he was reported as saying a midnight raid on Kenya’s second largest private media house, the Standard Group, was a “government operation.” Hooded Attackers The raid, widely thought to have been led by hired Armenian gunmen, was carried out by hooded men in 2006. The heavily armed attackers disabled machines of the Kenya Television Network, KTN, burned next day’s Standard newspapers and drove away with the TV station’s computers, effectively putting the station off air and the newspapers off the streets for a day. It was to commemorate the event and to urge the government to return its property taken during the raid that the Standard Group had invited Mr. Muite among other guests that included the American ambassador, the German ambassador and the British High Commissioner, all vocal critics of the Kibaki government. And they all, as expected, made scathing criticism of the government, repeated their condemnation of the raid and vowed to ensure press freedom is safeguarded in Kenya Bone of Contention But Mr. Muite, who was the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Administration of Justice when the raid occurred, went further to allege that the then minister for internal security had told the parliamentary committee that the raid was a “government operation” to stop the KTN and the Standard, publishing reports that alleged the President had more than one wife. In deed, a day after the publication of Muite’s allegation, a furious President Kibaki called a press conference – the first ever- and accompanied by his equally angry wife, Lucy, emphasized that he had only one wife. “This is my dear wife, Lucy. And I want to say something that I hold dear in my heart. I have only one wife and four children,” the President said, threatening to sue the MP. Matter Isn’t Rested The next day, however, there was a countrywide condemnation of the press conference. Kenyans accused the President of wasting time over trivial matters of his family while neglecting important issues of the day such as famine now ravaging the country and soaring youth unemployment. And with that it was hoped the matter was rested. In fact, many saw the threat to sue as an empty posturing as according to Kenyan law, a sitting president cannot sue or be sued. But that was not so. For now the President’s four children, through a lawyer, have formally written to the MP, threatening to take the MP to court if he does not “retract and apologize” for implicating the first family in the raid. “The effect and purport of the statements were, in a nutshell, that our clients planned and were involved in the raid on the Standard Group,” the lawyers said in a letter that gave the MP seven days to apologize or be sued. But in an immediate rejoinder, the MP, through his lawyer, said he stood by his statements. In a letter to the Kibaki children’s lawyer, he said he was not aware that the President’s children were part of the government. “How, in law and in fact, are your clients seeking to connect or involve themselves with the “government Operation?” he asked through his lawyer. He told the Kibaki children not to await his apology as he was looking forward to the intended suit. “It will be vigorously and robustly defended at your clients risk as to the costs and all other consequences ensuing there from,” Mr. Muite’s said.