United Democratic Alliance (UDA) flagbearer William Ruto has pulled out of the 2022 presidential debate alleging media bias and propaganda by the county’s mainstream outlets which the wheelbarrow party claims have been partisan on one side all through their coverages.
In a statement on Thursday evening, the UDA Presidential Secretariat through its Press Secretary Hussein Mohammed has accused Kenyan mainstream media of negatively profiling the Kenya Kwanza brigade and leaders affiliated with the political outfit.
“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. While their nefarious intentions and actions remain inconsequential to an enlightened people, we demand fair play as a matter of right as well as professional decency,” the statement reads in part.
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“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 repotted. This has been deliberately contravened, consciously ignored and brazenly abused by the sections of the media.”
”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. The deputy president has, consequently, warned that he’ll boycott the presidential debate scheduled for July 12, 2022. Under the current partisan media environment, we have advised our candidate against participating in the presidential debates,” said Mohamed, just hours after William Ruto claimed 1 million votes had been removed from his strongholds.
