Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi is in more trouble with the law after a Nairobi court issued a warrant of arrest against him for failing to appear in court for sentencing and for repeatedly defaming Safaricom boss Bob Collymore on social media.
While issuing the warrants, Lady Justice Lucy Njuguna said that this is the third time that Nyakundi has failed to appear in court.
“A warrant of arrest is hereby issued against Nyakundi. It is to be enforced and be brought to court for sentencing,” Justice Njuguna ruled.
Late last year, Judge Njuguna found Nyakundi guilty of disobeying sanctions forbidding him from publishing offending and defaming articles about Bob Collymore.
In her ruling on December 1, last year Justice Mwihaki dismissed Nyakundi’s assertion that he did not maliciously discredit the Safaricom CEO or cast aspersions on his credibility and reputation. Similarly, she threw out his assertion that the court order was not served on him personally.
The court had last month given Nyakundi ten days to justify his continued defamation of Safaricom boss Bob Collymore before appropriate punishment against him can be taken.
The court had further directed Nyakundi to file a sworn statement and provide copies to Collymore’s lawyers who complained that the blogger has deliberately disobeyed court orders restraining him from publishing offending articles on social media on December 1, 2016.
In the case Safaricom CEO is seeking orders to have Nyakundi committed to civil jail for six months for disobeying an injunction issued on July 18, last year, blocking him from publishing defamatory articles concerning corruption in the media industry in Kenya.
Collymore and his predecessor Michael Joseph had sued the blogger for publishing defamatory statements against them in his blog late last year.
