Jalang’o, Senator Chesang Issue Demand Letter to Citizen Weekly over Links to KSh 1b Gold Scam
Controversial blogger Cyprian Nyakundi has responded to the recent threats of legal action made by Lang’ata Member of Parliament Phelix Oduwuor, also known as Jalang’o, and Trans Nzoia Senator Allan Chesang.
These threats stem from allegations linking them to a fraudulent gold scheme worth one billion Kenyan Shillings in Nairobi, Kenya.
“My lawyer, Donald B. Kipkorir, will be handling these matters,” said Mr Nyakundi on September 12, 2023, hours after Jalango and Chesang sent him demand letters.
Mr Nyakundi added, “MP Zaheer Jihanda has also sent a 20-page demand letter to my WhatsApp, demanding I delete the tweet and article and apologize, or we head to court. I have not seen this demand letter (Chesang’s)… For Jalas, his lawyers sent the demand letter to my WhatsApp.”
In his earlier statement, Jalango, via his lawyers at Cliff Oduk Advocates, took issue with Cyprian Nyakundi posting on his social media platform, claims linking him to the Sh 1b gold scam involving a Tunisian businessman.
Jalango demanded that Mr Nyakundi “immediately publishes a public retraction with apologies, cease and desist from making any further statements involving him, the publication of a correction and clarification to reveal he made the statements that are false and without merit as well as compensate him for reputation damage and any financial losses he incurred as a result of the defamation.”
The same article was run by a weekly newspaper called Citizen Weekly. Jalango branded the publication “rogue media” and also threatened to sue them.
“Rogue media must be dealt with! After the steps I take against Citizen Weekly, I don’t think they will ever sit down and write a defamatory story on anyone again, then call to extort you in the name of ‘we will clean your name!’ I’ll not fall for that nonsense! Good day!” said Jalango.
The article claimed the DCI had arrested the suspects, including three first-time MPs from Rift Valley, Nyanza, and Nairobi regions; a Senator, an MP and a Kitui-based DCI officer at a Nairobi estate where they had fake gold and fake dollars they intended on selling to a Tunisian national.
The Tunisian is said to have arrived in Kenya two weeks ago, but there was no one to meet him.
A taxi driver picked him up, and he was taken to Ngara, a city suburb, where he had to wait a week until the suspects reached out to him. He was expected to pay Sh 400 million to see the gold and Sh 600 million after the gold was smelted and handed to him for verification.
On September 7, 2023, when he returned to complete the transaction, he arrived in the company of DCI officers who raided the office and arrested the 10 suspects while two others escaped.
The police confiscated a pistol, fake money, several mobile phones, and metallic boxes containing the fake dollars.