Blogger Edgar Obare is facing legal consequences after a Nairobi court found him guilty of defaming businessman Kelvin Kaume Maingi and model Bernice Nunah. The court ruled that Obare must pay Sh6 million in damages and issue a public apology for publishing false claims linking the two to an alleged affair.
Principal Magistrate Hosea Mwangi Ng’ang’a delivered the judgment on November 7, 2025. The magistrate determined that Obare’s posts on his Telegram channels and Instagram were false, malicious, and caused substantial reputational and emotional harm to Maingi and Nunah.
The case stemmed from posts Obare made between December 1 and 5, 2022. In these posts, he alleged that Nunah was romantically involved with Maingi, whom he described as a “married sponsor.” The publications included photographs taken during a flight from Qatar to Nairobi and suggested that Maingi’s then-wife, a media personality, was seeking a divorce over infidelity claims. The court found that the statements circulated to over 100,000 followers portrayed Maingi as an unfaithful husband and Nunah as complicit in the alleged affair. The magistrate noted that the claims were unverified, false, and damaging to the plaintiffs’ reputations and emotional well-being.
Obare defended himself by claiming he was practising “citizen journalism” and relied on anonymous contributors known as “bnnpaparazzi.” He argued that his platform functioned as a digital newspaper. The court rejected this argument, stating that Obare’s Telegram channel did not meet the legal definition of a newspaper. It emphasized that he failed to verify the allegations with the individuals involved and violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional right to privacy. The judgment also criticized the posts as sensationalist and designed for personal gain, demonstrating disregard for accuracy and journalistic ethics.
The court awarded Sh2 million in damages for libel to both Maingi and Nunah. Each plaintiff received Sh1 million in exemplary damages, bringing the total payment, including costs and interest, to Sh6,096,658. Obare was ordered to issue a full public apology, remove all defamatory posts, and publish the apology on the same platforms where the content appeared. Additionally, the court granted a permanent injunction restraining him from publishing similar defamatory material about the plaintiffs in the future.
This ruling underscores the legal risks of unverified reporting on social media and reinforces the responsibility of digital content creators to respect privacy and journalistic standards.
