CIVIL LITIGATION DRAFTING ASSIGNMENT

Mwandishi Matata is a blogger and the publisher of a website/blog known as Kilio Cha Haki which
is on the World Wide Web system at the address www.kiliochahaki.com.
On 14th June 2022, the following article was published on the website/blog:
“SELFRIDGES CEO Bribed Anti-Corruption Officials To Ignore Complaint”
Selfridges managing director John Doe bribed the Anti-Corruption officials with Ksh.
200,000 to ignore a complaint, the editor of this site has learnt.
The Anti-Corruption Authority, a moribund institution has itself become a stumbling block
in the war against corruption to an extent of being praised by some corrupt cartels because
it is a “soft institution.”
This is not the first time the editor of this site has linked the Authority to bribes aimed at
killing cases. A few days ago we also exposed how the Authority was bribed by senior
officials of a Government department to overlook scandals at the department.
In a letter to the Authority, anonymous employees exposed how Selfridges senior
management was discriminating against locals by hiring Caucasians despite there being
qualified locals to do the jobs. The bribery starts at the immigration department, which
gives the work permits.
The complaint letter had also raised an issue on how Selfridges is polluting the
environment around their stores and getting away with all these crimes by
bribing environmental officials.
The above is mentioned a letter which was forwarded to me by one person who had come
across it and realized that it was a complaint launched a long time ago and nothing was
done.
We can also report that there are certain employees who enjoy the protection of the
managing director and the chief security officer (a former police officer) and use it to extort
money from suppliers and contractors in false promises. Nothing is done about it despite
the victims reporting to the police.
The last is a concern that Selfridges is going down gradually due to arrogance and poor
management skills of the top managers.
We now demand that the new Anti-Corruption Authority boss audits all complaints at the
Authority!”
The publication included the photograph of John Doe which was captioned “John Doe, Managing
Director, Selfridges”.
Selfridges is a high-end department store owned and managed by Selfridges Retail (Kenya)
Limited, a subsidiary of the UK-registered and based Selfridges Retail Limited. They are the
leading department store in the country. John Doe is the Managing director of the Kenyan
subsidiary.
Upon becoming aware of the publication, John Doe instructed you to issue demand requiring the
blogger to delete the article, retract the false allegations against him and Selfridges, and issue an
apology. John Doe indicated that the allegations of bribery, preferential hiring of foreigners, and
extortion are false.
You issued the demand, upon which Mwandishi Matata published a second article on the
website/blog:
“Selfridges CEO Takes On Top Blogger Mwandishi Matata Over Article Linking Him
To Corruption

The Selfridges CEO John Doe has sent a demand letter to top Blogger Mwandishi Matata
through his lawyers over allegations that the chief editor of this site made, linking him to
corruption, bribery and illegal activities.

Kenya has been held hostage by foreigners that engage in corruption, then use courts to
bully those asking the hard questions. This site has been in the forefront exposing corrupt
foreigners that have assumed Kenya is irredeemably corrupt hence perpetuating the
culture of impunity.

The editor of this site receives up to four demand letters per month, from exposed persons
that are always quick to use the judicial process to intimidate and bully us despite the fact
that we are not answerable to any power as we only seek to inform Kenyans based on
information sent to us anonymously.

John Doe bribed Anti-Corruption Authority officials to ignore a complaint, we had

reported.

In the letter to the Authority, anonymous employees exposed how Selfridges senior
management was discriminating against Kenyans by hiring Caucasians despite there being
qualified Kenyans, by way of bribing immigration.

The complaint letter had also raised an issue on how Selfridges is polluting the
environment and getting away with all these crimes by bribing environmental officials.

We also reported how certain employees of Selfridges enjoy the protection of the managing
director and the chief security officer and use it to extort money from suppliers and
contractors in false promises.

We now request the president to do something about corrupt foreigners manipulating the
system in their own favour.”

Links to the two articles have been shared on various social media sites by Mwandishi Matata and
members of the public, and have been read widely.
John Doe has instructed you to “prepare the court papers and urgently lodge them in court” to
protect their interests.

Draft the relevant pleading for instituting the court proceedings.

Additional instructions:
1. You are permitted, and encouraged, to be creative by introducing additional logical facts to the
case. Such facts must, however, not be inconsistent with the facts that are provided.

2. You are only required to draft the primary pleading for instituting the action, and not any
accompanying documents usually filed in court together with the pleading.

3. You may assign names to any parties you wish to include whose names are not provided in the
question.