The National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula has given The Standard Group a 48-hour deadline to retract a story titled 'Broad Based Family' which he calls false and malicious.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

Through a demand letter obtained by   Kenyans.co.ke on July 7, Speaker Wetang’ula’s lawyers, Milimo Muthomi and Company Advocates, the Speaker demands an unconditional apology be published on the newspaper's front page. “Our instructions are to demand, which we hereby dutifully do, that you that you tender an unconditional written apology to our Client at the top page of the next issue of Standard Newspaper, and in any event not later than forty eight(48) hours from the date hereof,” stated the letter.

The dispute traces back to a July 6 front page story titled Broad Based Family , which carried Wetangula's photo alongside other senior public officials.

According to the demand letter, the piece suggested these officials owe their positions to family ties with the Speaker, a claim his team firmly rejects.

📌 What You Need to Know

The letter states that only one person named in the story, Westlands Member of Parliament Tim Wanyonyi, is actually related to Wetangula, as his younger brother.

Even then, the lawyers argue Wanyonyi earned his seat through the ballot, noting he belongs to a different party and represents a constituency where Wetangula cannot even vote.

The letter further insists that none of the other officials mentioned owe their appointments to any family connection with the Speaker.

It adds that Wetang’ula's own office at the National Assembly has not hired a single relative, a point his lawyers say underscores his commitment to fairness. “ Your said top page publication as read together with the detailed narrative appearing at Page 4 thereof, leaves no doubt as to what your publication was intended to achieve, and which was achieved, in summary, and among others, that our Client is a relative to all the persons named therein and through which association he has invoked to cause the holding and or placement of those persons in the public offices they hold,” stated the letter in part. “Through this offending publication therefore, you have caused and portrayed our Client, in the mind of right-thinking persons, as, among others, an individual who utilize his public office and or power to reward relatives with high public offices, commonly referred to as nepotism, among other vices.”

Wetang’ula’s team accuses The Standard of failing to verify facts before publishing, describing the story as a breach of responsible journalism standards.

They argue the publication has exposed the Speaker to public ridicule, both within Kenya and among audiences beyond the country's borders.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke