[dropcap]B[/dropcap]usinessman Jimmy Wanjigi has sued Nation Media Group seeking damages for violating his fundamental rights and freedoms after the Daily Nation published an obituary featuring his photo and private family details.
In his petition, Wanjigi and his wife, Irene Nziza, want the court to find the media house guilty for acts of negligence committed against them and that it be prohibited from further violating their fundamental rights and freedoms. The suit has the potential of costing Nation Media Group hundreds of millions if it is found culpable.
The family is also seeking a prohibitory order prohibiting the respondents from further publishing private and family details of the petitioners including those of their children.
In the suit, Wanjigi, who describes the February 7 obituary as a a grotesque and chilling death warning and announcement, has enjoined acting CEO Stephen Gatagama, Editor in Chief Tom Mshindi and Group Advertising Director Michael Ngugi, who has since left the company.
“The said publication further included the private details of the Petitioners family life, details of their children, places of residence, schools they attend and other personal and private information of the Petitioners and their family members, reads the petition.
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The petitioners further hold that the respondents in making the said publication were communicating a death warning, issuing a promise to kill to Wanjigi and offering for public display personal and private details of their family with a view to further incite criminal acts against the Petitioners and their children.
They claim that the act of the respondents was partly accentuated with malice and an intention to drive sales of their flagship publication through the public reaction the said publication was going to generate.
“In their scheme of things, the Respondents intended to achieve multi-pronged benefits from the said grotesque death announcement; violate the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Petitioners; convey a chilling death warning and ultimately economically profit from the public interest the said grotesque publication was intended to generate,” the petition filed by Katwa and Kemboy Advocates further reads.
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Wanjigi and his wife add that the said publication was designed and borrowed from a tactic used world over by killer squads to torment, psychologically torture their targets, display their private information to members of criminal gangs across the globe with a view to further advance the criminal enterprise and whenever appropriate enhance a bounty.
Following the publication of the obituary, NMG issued an apology and said action had been taken against advertising staff who were involved. At the time, Wanjigi was in the police radar for his role in the mock swearing in of NASA leader Raila Odinga.
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