After Linda Okello, a former police officer, sued the Standard Media Group for a photo that was published in 2014, the High Court in Nairobi granted her Ksh.6.5 million in damages.
Ms. Okello filed a lawsuit against the media outlet, its subsidiary publication The Nairobian, and two of its journalists, for releasing a side profile picture of the on-duty policewoman wearing a skimpy skirt,
She claimed that the media outlet had wrongfully degraded her by inappropriately publishing her image and likeness and using it for notoriety or commercial advantage, through her attorney Tom Ojienda.
Standard Group, The Nairobian newspaper, Pkemoi Ngenoh, and Charles Otieno were ordered by Justice Asenath Ongeri to pay Okello Ksh. 6.5 million for defamation in a ruling dated August 17.
“Judgment be and is hereby entered in favour of the plaintiff against the defendants jointly and severally in the sum of Kshs. Six million, five hundred thousand shillings (6,500,000) together with costs of this suit and interest at court rates from the date of this judgment until payment in full,” court papers read.
At the time, Okello’s picture generated controversy on social media as Kenyans debated whether or not her outfit was appropriate. She also became the focus of extensively shared internet memes.
Due to accusations of fraud, the then-corporal was downgraded to a constable two years later, in 2016, as part of a campaign against Kiambu County police personnel who accepted bribes.
Thus, Okello filed a wrongful demotion lawsuit against Inspector General Joseph Boinnet, the police chief at the time. She said she was never given the chance to react.
The former police officer, whose attorney at the time was Prof. Ojienda, claimed that she had trained at Kiganjo Police College before joining the service in May 2003 and doing general duties in Kisii.
She received a promotion to corporal in 2008 and later joined the Traffic Department in 2009 and was posted to Kiambu.
Okello has since quit the police force and relocated to the United States.