Sputnik V vaccine importers to sue Nation News Media over corruption story linking KEMSA

 

Sputnik V Vaccine. FILE

Dinlas Pharma EPZ Limited now demands a public apology from Nation Media Group for claimed vilification over an article associating it with fraud in the health sector.


The company challenged the newspaper for publishing a misleading article on April 2 that said it is fraudulent and designed to defraud Kenyans.


The company imported thousands of Russia's Sputnik vaccine. The vaccine was already in use before it was outlawed by the Ministry of Health.

In a letter to Nation Media, the company's advocates, led by Donald Kipkorir, said the importer obtained approval for distribution of the vaccine from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board although it had yet to be cleared by the WHO.

The advocates challenged the article linking the firm company with illegal ventures such as the KEMSA scandal was out of "malevolence and spite" towards it.

"The publication was designed and calculated to damage the reputation of our client to the advantage of other companies of businesses known to yourselves," the letter reads.

The story printed by Nation described how the "ghosts of Covid millionaires" were implicated in the importation of the vaccine.

NMG alleges 75,000 doses of the Sputnik vaccine were dispatched into the country and cleared for use.

The importer gives NMG two days to withdraw the article as well as publish an immediate apology, failing which it will continue with legal action.

According indicated in the letter, a lawsuit will be filed either in Viz, Moscow, Dubai, Nairobi or London, as importation contracts were performed in Russia, Dubai and Kenya.