Deputy President William Ruto’s Presidential Campaign on Sunday, July 3, wrote to the Nation Media Group (NMG) complaining over what it described as negative stories about its candidate,
In a letter seen by Kenyans.co.ke, the Director of Communications in the DP’s Presidential Campaign team Hussein Mohammed wrote to NMG CEO Stephen Gitagama accusing the outlet of biased framing including in Sunday lead story about Ruto’s alleged confession about nearly slapping President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Mohammed further accused the Nation of using the story ‘Day I almost slapped Uhuru’ to negatively profile Kenya Kwanza, terming the Sunday Nation headline story was pure misrepresentation of facts.
The Director of Communications in DP Ruto’s Presidential Campaign Hussein Mohammed.
Kenyans.co.ke
He further added that the article was being used in an attempt to decoy the attention of Kenyans from the recently launched manifesto.
“The Sunday Nation headline and story is a continued attempt to evade reporting on rather revolutionary policies in the Kenya Kwanza coalition manifesto and intensify your biased framing and negative profiling of the Kenya Kwanza campaign.”
“We note our displeasure with your media house’s decision to not only distort facts but outrightly publish fabricated and imaginative stories whose agenda only you can explain,” the letter read in part.
The former Citizen TV journalist also took issue with the Nation‘s story on June 2 – Ruto: I’ll probe Uhuru after polls. He distanced the UDA flagbearer and his Kenya Kwanza co-principals from the contents of the story.
“The story is evidently a deliberate misinterpretation with an aim to create a misunderstanding and persuade or negatively bias the reader to advance political ends.
“At no point did the Kenya Kwanza and UDA presidential candidate or the coalition principals state that they will probe President Uhuru Kenyatta after forming the next government,” the campaign team added.
While reverting to recent findings on an analysis of coverage of presidential candidates by the Media Council of Kenya (MCK), Ruto reminded Gitagama that his station was among those listed for propagating skewed coverage which was worsened by misrepresentation of facts.
He further called on NMG to publicly admit that they were aligned with one political side instead of pretending that they were impartial in their coverage of political news.
“While your media house is free to support one side, basic decency demands that you publicly state the same, rather than hiding under the guise of objectivity,” Hussein concluded in the missive to Gitagama.
NTV studios at Twin Towers along Kimathi Street in a photo dated October 2017.
NMG
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