Court declines to gag Nation in Sakaja suit
The High Court in Nairobi declined to issue orders stopping the Daily Nation from publishing stories linking Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja to June 17, 2025 Gen Z-led anti-Finance Bill protests.
Justice Nixon Sifuna, in a ruling delivered on Tuesday, dismissed Sakaja’s application for an interlocutory injunction in his defamation suit against Nation Media Group, journalist Evans Habil and reporter Nyaboge Kiage.
The Governor had moved to court on June 19, 2025, accusing the newspaper of defaming him through a front-page story titled “How Chaos Was Planned”, which ran on June 19.
The article reported on chaos witnessed in Nairobi on June 17, in which protesters were attacked by goons, and carried Sakaja’s photograph alongside statements attributed to him.
Sakaja argued that the publication portrayed him as a sponsor of violence and claimed that unless restrained, the media house was likely to publish similar stories in future, especially on anniversaries of the Gen Z protests.
But Justice Sifuna ruled that the Governor had not met the legal threshold for gagging the press at a pre-trial stage.
“This court is not satisfied that the plaintiff has established a sound enough and legally sufficient enough basis for a grant of the injunctive orders sought in this Motion,” ruled Sifuna.
Sifuna held that injunctions against the mainstream media must be issued sparingly and only in exceptional cases.
“Pre-trial injunctions, if dished out in a wanton, reckless and cavalier fashion, have the effect of stifling media freedom and cutting back on gains made in promoting a free press,” the judge said.
The court ruled that public figures like Sakaja are subject to higher scrutiny, and that any defamatory harm can be compensated through damages if proved at trial.
The judge further dismissed the request for what he termed a “rolling gag order” against Nation Media, saying it was speculative and based on mere apprehension without evidence of imminent publication.
“The higher the privilege, the higher the responsibility and scrutiny,” Justice Sifuna said
He added that press freedom and the public interest must be balanced against individual reputation.
“Press freedom and journalistic expression are a necessary evil,” said the court.