Suna East MP Junet Mohamed has issued a legal warning to the Standard Media Group, accusing the publisher of running defamatory reports that he says have severely harmed his reputation.
Through his lawyers, Junet delivered a demand letter dated Tuesday, January 6, giving the media house seven days to retract the contested stories, issue a public apology, and provide written assurances that no similar publications would follow.
The dispute stems from a series of articles carried in the January 6 edition of the Standard, which Junet says falsely and maliciously portrayed him in a negative light. The reports appeared prominently on the front page and on pages 6, 7 and 8, authored by different journalists.
According to the legal notice, the publications labelled Junet a “traitor”, a description his lawyers argue was reckless, scandalous and intended to damage his standing in public life.
The letter states that the language used implied that the MP was dishonest, politically disloyal and morally compromised, suggesting he served unnamed interests rather than the electorate. Junet’s legal team maintains that such portrayals were designed to expose him to public ridicule, hatred and contempt.
The lawyers further argue that the allegations were not only false but published with clear malice, noting that Junet occupies a senior constitutional position as Minority Leader in the National Assembly.
They contend that branding a sitting Minority Leader a traitor without factual or legal basis goes beyond legitimate political commentary and amounts to outright character assassination.
In addition to the front-page coverage, Junet took issue with a separate article on page 6, which he says inaccurately depicted him as a shadowy political broker who operates covertly before vanishing from the scene.
His lawyers describe those claims as entirely fabricated, unsupported by evidence and published with a reckless disregard for the truth.
Another article on page 8 allegedly portrayed Junet as an absentee and negligent legislator, further compounding what his legal team termed a coordinated and malicious attack on his character.
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The letter argues that the decision to splash the allegations across multiple pages demonstrates deliberate sensationalism, aggravated recklessness and a blatant breach of journalistic and legal standards.
Junet says the publications have caused significant reputational harm and personal distress, worsened by the newspaper’s national circulation.
As a remedy, his lawyers have demanded an immediate and unequivocal retraction of all the offending articles, a full public apology published with equal prominence in print and across all digital platforms, and a written undertaking barring any further defamatory references.
The letter warns that failure to comply within seven days will trigger immediate legal action against Standard Group Limited, including claims for general, aggravated and exemplary damages, injunctive relief, and legal costs.
The legal threat comes against the backdrop of ongoing political tensions within ODM. In recent days, Junet has also been forced to respond to allegations by ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna that he mishandled funds meant to pay election agents during the 2022 General Election.
Junet has denied the claims, insisting that the money was not handled by him or party structures but was instead released by former President Uhuru Kenyatta to his brother, Muhoho Kenyatta, who then appointed another individual to oversee recruitment and payments.
He further alleged that the entire agents’ operation was managed from a highly restricted office in Westlands, which he claims was inaccessible even to Raila Odinga, the party’s presidential candidate at the time.
According to Junet, despite taking control of the process, those involved failed to deploy agents in key regions, a situation he says contributed to ODM’s loss in the 2022 polls.
He has challenged those named in the controversy, including Uhuru and Muhoho Kenyatta, to publicly deny his claims, insisting that Kenyans deserve a full and transparent account of what went wrong.
