Nonini celebrates as court orders Ezekiel Mutua to pay him Ksh3 million over defamatory remarks

Genge musician Hubert Mbuku Nakitare, popularly known as Nonini, has reacted to a court ruling which awarded him a total of Ksh3 million in defamation damages.

Nonini was on Monday awarded the huge sum by Milimani Commercial Magistrate James Gitau following judgement delivered in a case where he sued former Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) chief executive officer Ezekiel Mutua for defaming him.

Justice Gitau awarded Nonini Sh2.5 million in general damages and a further Sh500,000 in exemplary and aggravated damages after finding that the statements from Mutua were likely to harm the musician’s reputation.

The court also ordered Mutua to remove the statements found to be defamatory from his social media account within 14 days of the October 26, 2026, judgment and to pay the costs of the suit.

“Imm'a need that by Monday! Game is Chess not Checkers! #Mgenge2ru,” Nonini posted on X (Formerly Twitter) following the ruling.

“Today [Monday] the Courts have awarded me Kshs2.5 Million in General damages & Kshs500,000 in Exemplary damages in a defamation suit against Ezekiel Mutua, former CEO MCSK. The post needs to be taken down in 14 days....”

The matter stems from Nonini’s decision to quit the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) in May 2022, where he had been a member for 24 years, citing meagre payments in royalties despite being in the music industry for long.

In January 2024, MCSK, where Mutua had been the boss, announced that it would distribute Sh20,000 in royalties to each of its members, leading to criticism over the amounts paid to artistes.

Nonini would state that he had a letter, dated January 29, 2024, which Mutua had addressed to the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO), detailing the society’s collections, distributions and expenditure and that it indicated MCSK had collected Ksh109 million from January-December 2023 and spent Ksh57 on employee salaries.

The musician told the court that when he shared the information on his X account, Mutua responded with defamatory statements and made further false claims in a radio interview which damaged his reputation.

In his defence, Mutua denied that he had defamed Nonini while dismissing claims of corruption within MCSK, insisting that the suit lacked merit as the rapper made blanket allegations that he could not substantiate.

However, Justice Gitau found that Mutua’s statements portrayed the US-based musician as a fugitive who had left the country to evade the law and were likely to lower his standing in the eyes of the public.

“From a perusal of the remarks complained of, this court is persuaded that such remarks are likely to cause reputational damage as they have the effect of painting the plaintiff (Nakitare) to be a fugitive who is outside the country in a bid to evade the law,” the court ruled.

“These remarks were indeed published and are likely to lower the image of the plaintiff herein in the minds of right-thinking members of society.”

The court found that Nonini had proved his case on the balance of probabilities and when determining the award, considered previous defamation cases in which plaintiffs had been awarded Sh2 million and Sh1.5 million over publications found to have harmed their reputations.