Deputy President William Ruto says he will not attend the Presidential debates citing marginalization by a section of media houses in their news coverage.
In a statement released by the Director of Campaign Hussein Mohamed, Kenya Kwanza terms the debate as a platform already geared to put presidential aspirants down to the advantage of others.
The Kenya Kwanza presidential aspirant further stated that there was continuous propaganda being peddled by a section of mainstream media in abuse of statutory terms of license further violating constitutional freedom.
“We have noted with much concern the repeated and continued bias and propaganda in a section of Kenya’s mainstream media in abuse of statutory terms of license and violations of constitutional freedoms.” Read the statement.
Kenya Kwanza called on the media to play a rightful role of informing and cultivating an all inclusive discourse, further demanding fair play in the coverage of political campaigns ahead of the August polls.
“We note the unequal allocation of coverage, compounded by biased framing and negative profiling of the Kenya Kwanza Alliance campaign and personalities affiliated to it.” Stated the statement.
The statement further stated political news is a matter of public interest and its coverage therefore by a journalist, media practitioner or media enterprise, according to the Media Council Act (2013), has to be done fairly, accurately and with all sides of the story being reported.
