The Magistrate Court of Kenya, sitting at Milimani Law Courts, has stopped blogger Cyprian Nyakundi from propagating falsehoods about the Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives (KUSCCO) CEO George Ototo through his X account which has a huge following.
In a matter filed under “urgent application,” KUSCCO together with George Ototo accused Nyakundi of maligning the name of one of the largest Saccos in Kenya through a series of posts on X, a move that could potentially bring down the Sacco by causing panic among members.
KUSCCO believes that Nyakundi is being used as a gun-for-hire by the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) which has failed to substantiate allegations of KUSCCO and its CEO being involved in the misappropriation of funds belonging to the Sacco members.
Here are the orders:
On his X account, Nyakundi posted that he was not going to further make posts about the matter following an order from the court. He however added that the order does not stop him from talking about KUSCCO but the CEO alone, another thing that might land him into another trouble.
“Sorry guys looks like KUSCCO CEO George Ototo has gone to court and requested that I don’t talk about the current investigation being carried out by SASRA, CBK, Ministry of Cooperatives, and other accountability institutions… It is what it is… Court has gagged me…,” he said.
Here is an order served to Nyakundi:
For days, Nyakundi has been making a series of posts about KUSCCO and its CEO while maliciously telling people that the Sacco was collapsing and that they should rush and withdraw their money. Given the volatility of the financial sector, his posts were not to be ignored or taken lightly.
Nyakundi is no stranger to controversy, a skill he seems to have mastered to make a living. According to those who know him, Nyakundi uses blackmail and other crude ways through his social media platforms which have a huge following to extract cash from his victims.
Sources indicate that Nyakundi has been paid to push a negative agenda about KUSCCO by a body that is supposed to regulate Saccos in Kenya. Nyakundi has also been accused of reaching out to KUSCCO officials and demanding a tune of 3 million shillings so that he could stop “posting about them and the Sacco online.”
“KUSCCO refused to pay him. He became mad and went ham on us. He has already been paid by those pushing the agenda and he wanted to blackmail both ways. That is what he does, using crooked means to make a living while ruining brands,” said the sources within KUSCCO.
The source has an audio recording of Nyakundi demanding to be paid as well as him admitting that he was under pressure from those who had paid him to tarnish the name of KUSCCO to “deliver.” “Nyakundi mentioned his financiers. Who he claims are powerful but mentions their names We shall be releasing the audio calls that he made with people he was sending to extort Ototo and names of the financiers,” said the sources.
“Nyakundi keeps sending his emissaries to help him get cash from people whose names he maligns. He has admitted that for the first time, he found people who refused to part with cash despite their names being maligned. KUSCCO has refused to fall into the trap of Nyakundi’s extortionist behavior. Narrating baseless/fact-less stories to extort money.”
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