Free cease and desist letter template
A free cease and desist letter template for Kenya. The letter itself has no statute behind it — it is correspondence — but it creates a dated record that the conduct was brought to the recipient’s attention, and in a defamation case it asks for the correction and apology the Defamation Act treats as amends. Mind the clock: section 4(2) of the Limitation of Actions Act allows three years for a tort, and only twelve months for libel or slander.
What you still need to do
- Check the clock first. Section 4(2) of the Limitation of Actions Act gives three years for a tort and, by its proviso, only twelve months for libel or slander — counted from publication, not from when you found out.
- Be specific about the conduct, with dates, and quote the words where words are the complaint. A vague letter cannot be complied with and is worth little as evidence.
- Ask for what a court could order, and give a deadline you will actually act on.
- Where the complaint is defamation, consider asking for a correction and apology in the Act’s own terms — sections 13(1) and 13(3) treat exactly those steps as amends, and accepting them can end the matter.
- Send it a way you can prove: by hand against a signature, or by registered post, and keep the receipt.
- This letter does not stop a limitation period running, and it is not an injunction. If you need the conduct stopped now, that is an application to court, and a qualified legal professional should make it.
Why each clause is here
Every clause in this document is drawn from the provision named beside it, and the wording of each provision was read in the Act itself. Where the law fixes something a document cannot change, this is where it says so.
No Act we hold prescribes the form of a cease and desist letter. What matters is that it is dated, that it identifies the sender and recipient without ambiguity, and that the method of delivery is recorded — because the value of the letter is the proof that the recipient was told, on a particular day. Send it a way you can evidence, and keep the receipt.
Specifics are what make the letter usable later. Section 4(2) of the Limitation of Actions Act is also why dates belong here: an action founded on tort may not be brought after three years from when the cause of action accrued, and its proviso cuts that to TWELVE MONTHS for libel or slander. 🔴 If the words were published more than a year ago, say so to your advocate before you send anything — the letter may be the last step available rather than the first.
Section 3 of the Defamation Act matters to anyone complaining about words spoken against their work: in an action for slander in respect of words calculated to disparage the plaintiff in any office, profession, calling, trade or business held or carried on at the time of publication, it is not necessary to allege or prove special damage. 🔑 Paragraph 4 is deliberately drafted in the Act’s own language. Section 13(1) lets a publisher who says the words were published innocently make an "offer of amends", and section 13(3) says such an offer must include publishing a suitable correction and a sufficient apology and, where copies were distributed, taking reasonably practicable steps to notify the recipients. Asking for exactly that gives the other side a path that ends the matter — which is usually a better outcome than a suit, and is what a reasonable letter is for.
Ask for something a court could actually order, and say by when. A demand that is vague ("stop harassing me") is hard to comply with and hard to enforce; a demand that is precise ("remove the post published on [date] at [link]") can be met, and if it is not, the refusal is on the record. No Act we hold prescribes this wording.
🔴 Reserve rights; do not threaten what you are not prepared to do. A letter that promises proceedings that never follow teaches the recipient that the next one can be ignored. Threatening criminal proceedings to extract a civil advantage is a separate problem again, and is not something this template will help with. No Act we hold prescribes this wording.
The provisions, in the Act’s own words
Spacing is normalised for reading. Every word is the Act’s.
An action founded on tort may not be brought after the end of three years from the date on which the cause of action accrued: Provided that an action for libel or slander may not be brought after the end of twelve months from such date.
In any action for slander in respect of words calculated to disparage the plaintiff in any office, profession, calling, trade or business held or carried on by him at the time of the publication, it shall not be necessary to allege or prove special damage, whether or not the words are spoken of the plaintiff in the way of his office, profession, calling, trade or business.
A person (in this section referred to as the defendant) who has published words alleged to be defamatory of another person (in this section referred to as the plaintiff) may, if he claims that the words were published by him innocently in relation to the plaintiff, make an offer of amends under this section
in any case, to publish or join in the publication of a suitable correction of the words complained of, and a sufficient apology to the plaintiff in respect of those words;