Ole Ntutu cites media bias after KBC debate withdrawal

Narok Gubernatorial aspirant Patrick Ole Ntutu withdrew from the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s Narok Gubernatorial debate citing media bias.

Through his official social media pages Thursday evening, Ntutu who is vying on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party ticket noted that the current partisan media environment as reason to boycott the gubernatorial debate.

“In line with the party position, political news 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,” he said.

Although Ntutu had earlier confirmed his attendance to face his main challenger and the current Narok North Member of Parliament Moitalel Ole Kenta in the debate, he refuted the claims saying that he had not been invited to any kind of media interview in both Television and Radio as announced by the State broadcaster.

“We expect the media to play their rightful role in cultivating a healthy robust and inclusive discourse as put well by my party,” Ntutu said.

Ntutu’s withdrawal from the debate came shortly after the UDA Party advised its presidential flag bearer Deputy President William Ruto to skip the presidential debate slated for July.

A statement issued by the Director of Communications Hussein Mohamed cited “unequal allocation of coverage, compounded by biased framing and negative profiling of the Kenya Kwanza Alliance campaigns.”

“We expect the media to play their rightful role in cultivating a healthy robust and inclusive discourse. Our democracy depends on the media to make our political environment less divisive and less toxic,” said Hussein.

“Under the current partisan media environment, we have advised our candidate against participating in the presidential debate,” he added.

On his part, the ODM Narok Gubernatorial aspirant Moitalel Ole Kenta took his chance to highlight his agenda for the over 1.3 million residents of Narok if he gets elected.

During the debate, Ole Kenta, who has served from 2013-2022 noted that his main priority would focus on agriculture and health of the County’s devolved system.