JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
By a plaint filed in the superior court at Nairobi, Richard Kuloba, the respondent in this appeal, impleaded James Ochieng Oduol, Trading as Ochieng Oduol and Company Advocates, the appellant, for damages for libel. The alleged libel was contained in an affidavit which the appellant, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, drafted in support of a Notice of Motion he filed in court on behalf of his client in High Court Civil Case No. 418 of 1998. At the material time the respondent was serving as a Judge of the High Court of Kenya. It was alleged in that affidavit that the respondent had received a bribe of Kshs.5 million from one, Kamlesh Mansukhlal Damji Pattni as an inducement to decide the case favourably to the opposite party in the case. The affidavit was drafted on 5th January, 1999.
In paragraph 5 of the plaint, the respondent averred as follows:-
“5. The plaintiff has published and the fact is that at 8.09 a.m. on the said date prior to the filing of the sai…