He who complains about editorial must come to us with clean hands

Some people email to complain about editorial issues pretending to be someone they are not. I’ve had complainants who say they’re Raila Odinga or some other influential person. Because they’re lying about their identity, their hands are dirty. In a court of law, their claims would be denied because they’ve approached the court with ‘unclean hands’.

That’s what happened to the World Duty Free Company chairman Nasir Ibrahim Ali. Seeking compensation from the International Centre for Settlement of Investments Disputes, Mr Ali said he had bribed President Daniel arap Moi with $2 million (Sh200 million) to get the contract to run duty-free shops at Nairobi and Mombasa airports. In a judgment delivered in October 2006, the court dismissed his claim because he came with unclean hands.

The clean hands doctrine holds that a complainant is not entitled to obtain a remedy if he’s acting unethically or in bad faith with respect to the subject of the complaint. It is often expressed as a maxim of equity: “He who comes into equity must come with clean hands.”

Functionally, the doctrine should apply to complaints about editorial issues, which the Public Editor handles. A case in point is the Molo police story, in which they complained about a journalist who asked for a bribe to ‘kill’ a story about police corruption (“‘Nation’ values integrity and won’t allow ‘brown envelope’ journalism” — Daily Nation, March 4, 2016).

The journalist had filmed some traffic police officers receiving bribes from motorists. The police complained that the journalist was demanding too much money, which he said he would share with the editors in Nairobi so that they don’t publish the story.

About two weeks ago, I received another complaint from someone who also came with dirty hands. He was complaining about the publication of opinion articles in the Daily Nation.

“I wonder if the Nation has a policy that favours women’s articles over those from men,” he wrote. “I have been writing opinion articles for as long as I can remember but, in the past two years, the Nation stopped publishing my articles.

“I did an experiment. Every time I write an article and give it to a lady to send as hers, the editor does not only publish expeditiously, the editor also writes back to acknowledge receipt in the kindest and sweetest way possible. The editor also, a day prior to publication, alerts such ladies of the intended publication.”

I asked Opinion Editor Mwiti Marete to respond. He wrote: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond to the complaint by our esteemed reader (Name withheld). From the outset, may I thank him for appreciating our effort at engaging our readers and writers as much as possible through acknowledgement of receipt and updates on the fate of their articles.”

Mr Marete said engaging writers and readers is driven by the NMG corporate culture of customer focus. He added: “To the best of my understanding and belief, the NMG policy is grounded on fairness. We give everyone a fair and equal chance at expressing their opinion — as long as it is in the public interest, factual and not offensive and otherwise satisfies the NMG editorial policy and guidelines.

“There is no special consideration for one gender. Neither do we discriminate against either. However, in our pursuit of diversity and inclusivity, we exercise balance in areas such as gender, theme and age while endeavouring to ensure that the section portrays the face of Kenya.”

Despite the confession by the complainant that he uses other people to get published — his “experiment” — Mr Marete said graciously: “I thank him for being our loyal reader and invite him to contribute articles to the newspaper — through his email address, not proxies. They will be published or turned down purely on merit.”

If I were the Opinion Editor, I would blacklist him for trying to get published under the guise of being a woman. That’s unethical and in bad faith. He who complains about editorial matters must do so with clean hands.

Send your complaints to Call or text 0721 989 264