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An advocate who sought anonymity told the Star that it was very harsh of the magistrate to jail the editor, even when he had apologised.
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He said the apology and even honouring the summons showed the editor was remorseful and a warning would have sufficed.
Image: FILE
A Nairobi court on Monday sentenced a senior editor at Tuko news to six months in jail or Sh50,000 fine for misreporting court proceedings in the Sh226.9 million NYS scandal.
Anti-corruption magistrate Eunice Nyutu sentenced Didacus Malowa to jail for contempt in relation to a story published in March this year about a prosecution witness.
In the case, former PS Lilian Omollo and 30 others have denied corruption charges relating to the Sh226.9 million NYS scandal.
Others facing charges are former NYS director general Richard Ndubai, his former assistant Nicholas Ahere, former director Sammy Mbugua, former Finance director Wellington Lubira and several other NYS staff.
Malowa was summoned to court as the Tuko news editor after the prosecution complained about a misleading story published about the witness.
Nyutu sentenced him both in his capacity as an editor and his personal capacity.
She said according to the Magistrate’s Court Act on contempt of court, the editor was in contempt for publishing the story.
In her ruling, Nyutu said the punishment will act as a deterrent to other journalists and media houses against publishing misleading articles.
She said the story published by the news organisation had damaged the reputation of the witness.
Tuko and KBC managing editors were summoned for publishing a story about a prosecution witness who was being cross-examined by a defence lawyer.
This is after the prosecution raised a complaint, saying the articles had tainted the name of their witness.
Through his lawyer, Malowa apologised to the court about the story, saying they got the story from one of their correspondents but once they realised the error, they pulled it down.
However, the court said the case before court had gotten a lot of publicity since it was brought to court and misreporting on it was wrong.
She has also directed Tuko to publish an apology to the witness on their website and also retract the initial article published.
The court issued further summons to the KBC managing editor.
The magistrate sent away a senior editor and demanded that the managing editor presents himself in court.
An advocate who sought anonymity told the Star it was very harsh of the magistrate to jail the editor, even when he had apologised.
He said the apology and even honouring the summons showed the editor was remorseful and a warning would have sufficed.
The advocate said the Magistrate's Court Act has given power to the magistrates to punish whoever the court finds to be in contempt.
Interestingly, the editor was never put to the dock as is the norm before being sentenced as he was sitting on the benches with other people, while his lawyer addressed court.
In court matters, when one is summoned in court he is put in the dock where he identifies himself by producing his identity card but Malowa never did.
He stood up when the court asked for the editor and his lawyer took over while he remained seated until he was sentenced then moved to the police cells to await processing of his fine.
Malowa left the cells at 2pm after paying the fine.
Kenya Union of Journalists in a statement said they will appeal the editor’s sentence at the High Court.
(edited by Amol Awuor)