Journalist jailed for four months in defamation case involving top Ruto aide

A journalist in Kajiado County has been ordered to pay a Ksh.100,000 fine lest he face imprisonment for four months, after being found in contempt of court in a defamation case involving State House Comptroller Katoo Ole Metito.

Jonathan Teikan, the Editor-in-Chief of Kajiado Star – an online news platform that focuses on the Maa community – was sentenced on Tuesday by Ngong Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Makau.

Teikan was sentenced for violating a court order that barred him from posting content related to Metito’s alleged involvement in the illegal acquisition of multiple acres of land belonging to Rombo Group Ranch in Kajiado South, until a defamation case on the same matter was heard and determined.

Metito sued Teikan for defamation in August 2024, after the journalist published a news story titled "How Katoo, Sitelu, disinherited Rombo widows, orphans.”

The article claimed that the State House Comptroller conspired with several Rombo Group Ranch officials to defraud legitimate members of the ranch, including widows and orphans, under the pretext that the parcels were reserved for senior leaders of the Kenya Kwanza regime.

Metito subsequently sought to legally prevent Teikan from publishing anything related to his alleged involvement in the issue.

However, Teikan continued to cover and publish articles addressing irregularities in the land allocations, linking several security and political operatives in the county.

Metito later returned to court in December, seeking to have the editor jailed for contempt of court. His lawyers also demanded a public apology from Teikan, which he complied with by publishing it in the Kajiado Star and Standard Newspaper.  

During the case's hearing on Wednesday, Metito's lawyer, Shadrack Wambui, rejected the published apologies and urged the court to punish Teikan, dismissing the apologies as insincere and lacking remorse.

In an earlier case involving the controversy-ridden ranch against group officials, Environment and Land Court Justice Maxwell Gicheru appeared to agree with the petitioners, suggesting that there was a conspiracy by ranch officials in which non-members were allocated parcels of land to the detriment of the genuine and original group ranch members.

"There is prima face case that non-members have been allocated land meant for members of the group ranch. If the defendants (ranch officials) have done a good job, they have nothing to fear,” said the judge in the past ruling.