NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 23 — Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua Friday said the media fraternity should brace for attacks from the political class terming the Moses Kuria-led onslaught against the press as an attempt to cure ‘lies’.
While referring to the Trade Cabinet Secretary’s assertion of media bias and targeted disinformation, Gachagua said there’s more to come.
“They (media) must be accountable for what they write and what they say and if they write lies, they must be countered with facts,” Gachagua’s remarked in reference to Kuria’s escalating war with the Nation Media Group (NMG).
“There is nobody who is immune to accountability,” he added.
Gachagua who was addressing a congregations at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) during the institution’s 40th graduation ceremony said President William Ruto’s administration will insist on holding the media accountable even as it upholds press freedom.
“Moses Kuria has asked just three questions and you are all over crying. You have seen nothing. We want to ask leaders in this country to join Moses Kuria to hold the press to account,” he said.
Gachagua scoffed at the media for what he termed as a sustained onslaught against Ruto’s administration and its officials saying tables will turn.
“Welcome to the world of Moses Kuria because no situation is permanent. And I’m so happy with the way media has reacted to criticism. It’s good you are feeling the way we feel. You have been hitting us left, right and centre but nobody has ever held you to account,” he said.
Gag order
Gachagua also reacted to a gag order issued by the court against Kuria saying the courts should equally retrain the press whenever petitioned by aggrieved parties.
“The same way the courts have been persuaded to gag Moses Kuria from holding the press to account, I want the same courts, when leaders go to ask them to restrain the media, the same court must give same orders so that we are fair,” said Kuria.
The High Court issued injunction forbidding Kuria from using disrespectful or slanderous phrases toward any media outlet.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi sitting at the Milimani Law Courts issued the orders on Wednesday in an application filed by one Charles Mugane, a human rights defender and advocate of the High Court.
Justice Mugambi asserted that pending the determination of the suit, Kuria is restrained “from uttering or expressing any belittling, condescending, disdainful words against any Media Practitioner by the meaning of Article 34 of the constitution howsoever and whatsoever.”
The judge ordered that the CS and the Attorney General be served within three days, and that they respond within seven days with the matter slated for mention on July 24.
Kuria’s remarks
The petition followed a public statement during an event in Embu on June 18 Kuria termed NMG “an opposition party”.
He made a roadside declaration ostensibly directing government agencies to stop advertising with the media house.
The CS threatened to sack any state official who places government ads on Nation platforms.
I want to tell Nation Media, you need to choose whether you are a newspaper, broadcasting house or an opposition party.”
The CS appeared to be reacting to an exposé published by NMG over the weekend detailing an alleged oil scandal under his ministry.
The refused to retract his comments dismissing calls for by media sector associations.
“I am not apologizing; I have been a media owner before. I have been a writer in your newspapers and all that before,” he said on Wednesday.
“There is nobody who is pro-media more than me, but I know the difference between media and what Thomas Baldwin called the prerogative of the harlot; ‘the exercise of power without responsibility’.”
