The Law Society of Kenya has lost round one in its battle to halt the publication and distribution of government advertisements through a weekly supplement via the Star after the High Court declined to grant conservatory orders.
LSK had moved to court to challenge the government's award of the MyGov tender to the Star, claiming the move would stifle media freedom and limit public access to information in contravention of several Constitutional provisions.
The society thus sought orders to halt the deal.
When the matter came up for mention Thursday, Justice Chacha Mwita declined to grant the orders and instead directed parties to file and serve their respective responses to the petition.
Lawyer Kigata acting on behalf of Star Publications Limited and Convergence Africa Media Limited had told the court that there is already a contract at play and the same has been running for approximately two months.
He said he had already filed a preliminary objection because the petition offends the doctrine of constitutional avoidance and the doctrine of exhaustion that demands that a case should not be resolved by deciding a constitutional question if it can be resolved in some other fashion.
Justice Mwita directed that both the preliminary objection and the submissions on the petition be highlighted on April 26.
The government has already defended its award of the tender to the Star, saying the process was above board and noting that The Star’s bid was much lower than those of its rivals.
Information and Broadcasting PS Prof. Edward Kisiang’ani said The Star’s two-year contract was worth Sh9 million per weekly edition, compared to Nation’s bid of Sh28 million shillings per weekly edition and Mediamax’s bid of Sh23 million shillings per weekly edition.