High Court sets aside five days jail term against Tuko editor Dicadus Malowa
Justice Esther Maina ordered for immediate release of the editor after she set aside the five days jail term.
The High Court has set aside a magistrate’s decision to imprison an editor for Tuko.co.ke, Mr Junior Didacus Malowa, over alleged disobedience of an order to publish an apology following allegations of misreporting of the Sh226 million National Youth Service (NYS) graft scandal.
Justice Esther Maina also ordered immediate release of Mr Malowa from jail where he had been committed by chief magistrate Eunice Nyutu for five days.
The judge made the order following an application by Tuko Media Ltd and Mr Malowa seeking stay of the magistrate’s decision.
“The magistrate made adverse orders with far reaching ramifications against Mr Malowa and Tuko Media Ltd who are not parties to the proceedings in the Anti-Corruption case without hearing their side of story,” said advocate Moses Munoko.
Magistrate Nyutu had sentenced the editor for contempt without fine for failing to publish an apology over alleged misreporting of the case.
The magistrate accused the editor of not complying with orders issued to Tuko to apologise and retract a story.
His lawyer wanted court to suspend the sentence on grounds that the matter is in at the High Court for review of the initial order of fining the editor Sh50,000.
"The matter is touching on contempt of court which I take seriously as it touches on criminal defamation. I request the court to suspends it's orders. We have a review application touching on the same matter," said the lawyer.
On apology, he stated that the issue was beyond the editor's role. The court heard that Mr Malowa is a junior editor and was already traumatised.
It is an order to be handled by management, he stated. The lawyer also stated that the online news channel is not an entity but a webhost.
"Even if we say go serve tuko.co.ke that is not a person it is a host. It is not a legal entity and is a non-existence entity," said the lawyer.
