Kakamega Senator Dr Boni Khalwale has sued businessman Cleophas Shimanyula alias Toto for claiming that he murdered his long-serving employee.
The employee, Mr Kizito Moi Amukune was found dead in a cow shed on January 28 and a postmortem revealed that he died of excessive bleeding from injuries inflicted by a bull.
The legislator said despite concurrent findings from at least four medical doctors, Mr Shimanyula maliciously and without justification, made defamatory statements accusing him of murdering Mr Amukune.
“The defendant (Mr Shimanyula) showed a reckless disregard for the truth and engaged in a campaign to defame, discredit and malign the Plaintiff’s reputation and cast aspersions on his leadership for personal gain or ulterior motives,” Dr Khalwale said in the petition filed at the High Court in Nairobi.
He is seeking orders to permanently bar Mr Shimanyula from publishing or disseminating the defamatory statements or linking him to the death of the employee.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale with his three wives and sons during the burial of their farmhand in February 2024.
Photo credit: POOL
“A mandatory order that the Defendant do publish an unqualified retraction of all defamatory statements and an unconditional apology to the Plaintiff and his family issued with similar prominence as the defamatory statements, acknowledging the falsity of the accusations and the harm caused to the Plaintiff's reputation and integrity including but not limited to a whole page on a daily newspaper of national distribution,” he said through his lawyer Danstan Omari.
Dr Khalwale said he has been subjected to orchestrated attacks steered by the businessman with false and malicious accusations that he murdered his employee of 20 years.
He further said the accusations were meant to depict him as an irate and hot-tempered individual, embarrassing his family and undermining his position as the Senator and as the Majority Chief Whip of the Senate.
He further claimed that the politician interfered with the investigations, depicting him as corrupt and untrustworthy.
“The defendant’s continued willful attacks through malicious statements against the Plaintiff’s wives and children some of whom are minors and who unlike the Plaintiff have remained shielded from the public eye has caused them immense emotional distress and exposed them to public ridicule,” he said.
He wants the court to issue temporary orders, blocking Mr Shimanyula from publishing defamatory statements, pending the determination of the case.
Dr Khalwale said other than his legislative responsibilities, he engages in farming, specialising in both crop and livestock farming.
“He has a particular focus on rearing distinct bulls involved in the sport of bullfighting, per the customs of the Luhya Community and the Plaintiff’s status as a bullfighter,” the court documents state.
He said Mr Amukune served as his employee for approximately two decades with a lot of dedication to his duty as an attendee and caretaker of a bull nick-named Inasio, that was being trained to fight.
