The Star Newspaper Gets Into Legal Trouble

Looks like The Star newspaper is in trouble again. A demand letter was sent to the daily concerning a defamatory article they published.

“Opinion Polls: Fooling Some of the People All of the Time” which was published on the 18th of August is the article in question. Infotrak Research & Consulting Limited and Angela Ambitho, through their lawyers, are accusing the paper of defamation.

According to the suit, the article was “defamatory, libelous, innacurate, false and malicious” which deliberately looked to subject the Infotrak and Ms. Ambitho to “public ridicule, abuse, hatred” and damage their reputation.

The said defamatory article was in reaction to an Infotrak Harris Poll that put Raila Odinga on top as the most preferred presidential candidate in the next election.

One of the sentences in the article reads: “There are messages and lessons in these great quotes for Kenya’s present-day, deeply flawed opinion-polling sector, particularly for the firm called Infotrak Harris.”

The part that implicated Ms. Ambitho reads: “For instance, Infotrak Harris should always disclose that it is chaired by Mr. Jerry Okingu, one of the most diehard Odingaists who has ever lived. The CEO Ms. Angela Ambitho, another great Odinga serial booster.”

Those are just a few snippets of the article which the claimant also describes as “sarcastic, innacurate, misleading, malicious and offending.” The Star is supposed to have issued a public apology by now besides picking an appropriate compensation method for damages caused  to the claimants reputation.