NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 1 – Deputy President William Ruto has demanded a retraction and apology from activist Boniface Mwangi over a libellous tweet.
His lawyer Kioko Kilukumi says DP Ruto wants the retraction and apology to be made within seven days failure to which he will go to court.
The Deputy President described the remarks which were posted on Twitter as defamatory, false and malicious and have severely affected his reputation as a national leader.
“Our instructions are that on 28th September, 2016 through a social media platform (Twitter) using your personal Twitter handle with the name Boniface Mwangi (@bonifacemwangi) at 11:58am, posted the defamatory words against our client,” Kilukumi stated.
I hope Deputy President has no plans of killing me the way he killed his old friend,Jacob Juma a fellow thief who became a whistle blower.
— Boniface Mwangi (@bonifacemwangi) September 28, 2016
He indicated that the words have severely injured DP Ruto’s reputation.
He further pointed out that the post by the activist has exposed him to shame, hatred, contempt, aguish and animosity and has dented political career.
“The defamatory words attracted 556 retweets and 476 likes as of today at 9:30am 21 hours and 42 minutes after the tweet was posted as well as numerous comments from different people who now view our client as a murderer and a thief,” he said.
“It is common knowledge that all digital activity is public and permanent. Once posted online a tweet is there forever. It receives a worldwide view and anyone who Google’s the said tweet can retrieve it,” he observed.