Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wah has refused to issue an apology to Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya over ‘defamatory’ remarks he made during the burial of National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula’s mother.

In a response to the county boss, Ichung’wah insists the remarks he made during the January 6, 2025 burial in Kabuchai, Bungoma County do not amount to defamatory.

The National Assembly Majority Leader is instead shocked that a person of Governor Natembeya’s ilk can claim that his reputation has been tarnished.

“Our client is profoundly traumatized that your client, a self-proclaimed villain has the audacity to lay claim to any reputation capable of injury,” Ichung’wah says, through Adrian Kamotho Njenga & Company Advocates, alleging that Natembeya’s tenure as the Rift Valley Regional Commissioner was laced with criminal activities.

Governor Natembeya had sent Ichung’wah a demand letter on 6th January 2025, giving him three days to apologise through three national newspapers, failure to which he will face a lawsuit.

“We write this letter to demand, which we hereby do, a retraction and apology, which should be published in the next issue of the Nation, Standard and the Star newspapers in words to be approved by us in a bid to mitigate enormous damage caused to our client,” the demand letter issued by Oringe Waswa & Opany Advocates on behalf of Natembeya read in part.

But in a rejoinder, the vocal lawmaker alleged that during his tenure as a National Government Administration Officer, Natembeya issued shoot to kill orders against unarmed members of the public, and “masterminded excesses against innocent citizens.”

“Your client’s averment that he has any societal standing locally or internationally is outright blasphemy. For the avoidance of doubt, criminal conduct is not subject to limitation of time. Your client’s impression that the effluxion of time will sanitize his criminal past constitutes an enormous misapprehension. In the fullness of time, the wheels of justice shall eventually roar at your client’s doorstep, and there shall be immense weeping and gnashing of teeth,” Ichung’wah adds.

A counter-defamation suit

Ichung’wah adds: “Upon reflection, our client (Ichung’wah) readily observes that your client’s fragile ego, erratic disposition and bloated sense of self-importance is not a secret. It is openly visible and readily ascertainable at no cost. Yet at all times, our client has diligently upheld remarkable standards of civic responsibility, and hence owes nothing to your client.”

Instead, Ichung’wah accuses Natembeya of making “derogatory insinuations, obscenities and slanderous” claims against him subsequent to the funeral service.

“With grace, our client takes enormous pride in his hard earned reputation, and hereby demands an immediate cessation thereof, and a prominent apology for the scandalous, insolent, slanderous and defamatory statements, recklessly spewed by your client. Failure to make amends shall trigger the prompt
invocation of the apposite legal tools.”