Pattni fights to block airport story

One of the representatives of Mr Kamlesh Pattni speaks to security personnel at the Nation Centre reception in Nairobi on November 24, 2012. Photo|STEPHEN MUDIARI

What you need to know:

  • On Friday, Mr Pattni, his aides and emissaries made numerous frantic calls asking to meet editors working on the story but was turned down on the basis that the reportage was based on court and other documents.
  • The businessman stepped up his efforts after the Saturday Nation carried an advertisement inviting readers to the reportage of Mr Pattni’s new schemes.
  • He then sent a lawyer, a Mr Owino, who sought to serve what he called court orders on the Sunday Nation to stop the publication of the stories. Mr Owino was accompanied by a woman who said she was Mr Pattni’s personal assistant and seven other individuals.

The key perpetrator of the Goldenberg scandal that cost Kenya an estimated Sh100 billion at the weekend made frantic efforts to halt a Nation expose of yet another scheme that could cost the taxpayers dearly.

On Saturday, a group of process servers arrived at Nation Centre armed with what they claimed were court orders barring publication of a Sunday Nation article on a plot to take control of all duty free shops in the new Terminal 4 at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

What Mr Pattni’s agents were brandishing, however, was not a court order but a threatening letter from his lawyer Bernard Kalove, warning the Nation Media Group and individual editors and writers that they would be in contempt of court if the Sunday Nation article was published.

The letter cited a court order issued on November 21 by magistrate C Obulutsa at Nairobi’s Milimani Commercial Courts, barring the “printing, publishing, uttering or writing any words defamatory of our clients, Mr Pattni, whether in his personal capacity, his business, profession or calling in any capacity without first verifying the accuracy of such information by written confirmation from Mr Pattni and the relevant authorities”.

On Friday, Mr Pattni, his aides and emissaries made numerous frantic calls asking to meet editors working on the story but was turned down on the basis that the reportage was based on court and other documents.

The businessman stepped up his efforts after the Saturday Nation carried an advertisement inviting readers to the reportage of Mr Pattni’s new schemes. (READ: Pattni returns to haunt Kenyans with dirty Kanu era rip-off schemes)

He then sent a lawyer, a Mr Owino, who sought to serve what he called court orders on the Sunday Nation to stop the publication of the stories. Mr Owino was accompanied by a woman who said she was Mr Pattni’s personal assistant and seven other individuals.

Some posed as customers seeking advertising space as they looked for means to serve the editors with the papers. The team camped at the Nation Centre for three hours.

In turn, the editors informed them on phone that the legal department staff members were away and would only be available on Monday. They were escorted out of Nation Centre by security guards but Mr Pattni and his emissaries kept making calls.

On Sunday, the Law Society of Kenya praised the Nation for standing its ground to publish the stories.

“Gagging orders do not arise on matters of public interest so long as you do not go into the merits or demerits of a case and there are precedents to that effect,” said LSK secretary Apollo Mboya.