Businessmen Evans Gor Semelang’o and Paul Gathecha Muhoho together with PetroKenya Oil Company have written to the Standard Newspaper demanding an apology for articles published implicating them of being recipients of the NYS scandal proceeds.
In the letter obtained by Kahawa Tungu, the two say that the articles published on June 13 and June 16 “were not proceeded by any attempt to verify the accuracy thereof”.
“You have made defamatory allegations in relations to, and cast aspersions against, our said clients; by alleging expressly and by innuendo, that our clients have, improperly and/or otherwise directly, or in collusion with others, fraudulently obtained, or benefited from, motives irregularly paid by the National Youth Service,” read the letter in part, written by P.M. Kimani & Company Advocates.
On June 13, The Standard published a story headlined ‘How Uhuru Kin and Gor Semelango Got Millions From NYS Deal’ and On June 15, the sister paper, Saturday Standard published an article entitled ‘PS’s Explosive Dossier On NYS Spills The Beans’, to implicate Semelango, Muhoho, Horizon Kenya Ltd and PetroKenya Oil Company.
The duo, through their lawyer, argue that the stories were out of malice and were aimed at disparaging their image to the public.
“In publishing the said defamatory allegations, alleged statement of facts; and said imputations, assertions, inferences, allusions and innuendo, you were actuated by extreme malice; and that the said publications were calculated to disparage our clients in the eyes of the right-thinking members of the public; and to thereby cause our clients to be ridiculed, and held in contempt and disdain,” continues the letter.
Earlier on, Semelango had distanced himself from the NYS Scandal saying that his was clean business with Horizon Kenya, the company that subcontracted him(PetroKenya) to supply NYS with diesel.
The two have consequently demanded an unconditional apology from the local daily, that should bear the same prominence of the said stories contrary to which they shall file a legal suit against the Standard Group.
Read: PetroKenya Could Be A Victim Of Circumstance In The NYS Scandal, Details
“(We) demand a written, unconditional and unreserved apology in publications with similar coverage and/or outreach as the same as the ones that carried the said offensive articles; such an apology to bear similar prominence of the said offensive articles,” concluded the letter.
The have also demanded that the Standard admits liability as well as a vow that they shall not in future publish defamatory articles against them.
The Standard Group, the mother company of the Standard Newspaper is yet to respond to the letter dated June 21.
Below is a copy of the letter:-
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