Driver seeks Sh13m from Faras in marketing video dispute

Mr Manga said the company distorted his expression by editing his ‘balanced critique’ to create false endorsement and for broadcasting the edited and misleading videos on social media, to market the firm.

If successful, Mr Manga will be seeking damages for violation amounting to Sh10 million and Sh3 million for alleged profits made by the company for exploiting his image.

High Court Judge Lawrence Mugambi directed the firm capture and preserve the post metrics, the social media posts have generated since March 2025.

The evidence to be preserved include total impressions of each post (the number of times each of the posts was displayed on users’ screens) regardless of whether the users clicked or engaged with the post, the total impressions for each post be broken down by dates and geographical origin of the impressions with a specific reference to the number of impressions that are Kenyan specific.

Mr Manga said he and fellow cab drivers were invited to a town hall meeting on March 13, as the company sought an honest feedback on their ride-hailing application.

He said through lawyer Mercy Mutemi they trusted the meeting would be used to highlight the strengths and flaws of the application.

“But in a shocking breach of trust, the respondent secretly recorded him, maliciously edited his words to fabricate false praise, and plastered the distorted clips across social media as deceptive advertising,” he said in an affidavit.

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Mr Manga said the videos posted on X, Facebook, Tiktok and Instagram was a deliberate and “overt violation” of his dignity and privacy, and his fundamental rights to opinion, free expression and property.

He said is the chairperson of Ridehail Association, a lobby of ride-hailing cab drivers that carries out advocacy for better working conditions and fair terms for cab drivers.

Mr Manga said the taxi drivers were never informed that their attendance and participation would be recorded and that their comments would be publicly shared on social media platforms or used for commercial purposes.

“The Respondent (Faras) specifically demanded the Petitioner’s physical presence at the townhall explicitly citing his substantial influence among fellow drivers as the reason,” he said.

Mr Manga said the 55-second video features him endorsing Faras’ application and “levying uninhibited praise after praise on the superiority of the application”.

He said the post spurred a heated debate on WhatsApp group managed by cab drivers, with many of the members accusing him of being a traitor, by pretending to advocate for a fair ride hailing industry while marketing the Faras application vigorously.

He is accusing the firm of violating his rights by recording his participation in the town hall meeting without his consent and without giving him prior notice or the intention to use the material for commercial use.

Mr Manga is also accusing the company of commercially exploiting his image, voice and professional reputation for commercial advertising purposes without his consent.

The company opposed the case and argued that the High Court has no jurisdiction to determine the case.

According to the firm, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is empowered to deal with such matters.

“Section 56 of the Data Protection Act, 2019 requires a data subject who is aggrieved by the decision of any person under the Act to lodge a complaint with the Data Commissioner,” the firm said in objection to the petition.

Justice Mugambi said he will on the application seeking to strike out the case on July 28.

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