High Court has ordered Nation Media Group to pull down ‘COVID-19 millionaires’ story from their social media platforms pending the hearing of libel case by Megascope Ltd against them.
In their story, Nation Media Group had exposed individuals who benefited from Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) scandal.
According to the expose, some business people chattered planes to China to physically fly in Covid-19 medical supplies.
The story further revealed that some individuals waited for the goods, personal protective gear, ventilators and other medical items to land in Nairobi, then snapped them up in bulk and waited.
Twelve firms, for instance, were awarded contracts worth Sh3 billion by the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) to deliver items that were not covered by the state agency’s 2019/20 approved budget as at June 4, 2020, with some multimillion-shilling irregular bids going to friends and well-connected individuals.
Several companies were put on the list of beneficiaries, among them being kilig limited, Abyssinia Group of Industries (AGI), Bell Industries, Medlife Biologicals Limited among many others.
Mega Scope Healthcare had demanded an apology from Nation Media Group for the defamatory investigative story by Dennis Okari which aired on Sunday, August 16.
The company, believed to be associated with the National Chairman of Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Richard Ngatia through its lawyers Njoroge Regeru and Company, said that the investigative piece has destroyed the reputation of its client by terming the company as a dishonest and a corrupt entity.
Through a demand letter written to the Managing Editor, the company has distanced itself from the allegations aired by Dennis Okari, terming them as false and gravely damaging to the company’s image.
On Sunday August 16, NTV ran an investigative piece that widely mentioned Mega Scope Healthcare as one of the companies that allegedly contracted by KEMSA to clear covid-19 kits donated by Jack Ma.
The investigative piece alluded that there were records to show that kits were received the kits, but there was no public record of what happened thereafter.
