Inside Meeting State House Held With Media Editors

State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed on Tuesday, July 4 held talks with editors drawn from media houses in Kenya to debate President William Ruto's transformation agenda.

Speaking to the press on the sidelines, Mohamed revealed that the discussions, held informally with the editors drawn from select media houses, focused on unpacking the vision as well as the interventions made by the Kenya Kwanza administration according to its campaign manifesto.

The meeting also touched on priorities in place to transform the country through its bottom-up agenda.

"The meeting we had was with the media fraternity, of course, select...you can't have an engagement with all media at the same time, but select.

State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed addressing the media in Kisumu on January 12, 2023. /THE STAR

"What we were doing is just engaging them in an informal discussion and giving them an overview of the vision and priorities of the sector interventions that the President and the government are undertaking to realise the transformation of our country through the bottom-up economic transformation agenda," he stated.

The spokesperson further expressed praise for the government's commitment to fulfilling the agenda according to the promises set up during the campaign period leading up to the 2022 general elections.

"As I observed and told them, there is a clear correlation between the actions that have been taken by his administration with the objectives outlined in the manifesto.

"It's exciting to be in a country where in a long time, we have a President committed to following through what he promised in the campaign," he added.

The meeting took place a week after photos surfaced on social media showing Royal Media Services (RMS) chairman Samuel Kamau Macharia at State House, with reports subsequently indicating that he held a private meeting with President Ruto.

The media has been at loggerheads with the Kenya Kwanza administration over bias and negative portrayal of the ruling government, with figures including Members of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Secretaries (CS) being critical of the media functions in the country.

Trade CS Moses Kuria for instance threatened that any government official who places an advertisement on Nation Media Group (NMG) risks losing their job.

“I want to tell Nation Media, you need to choose whether you are a newspaper, broadcasting house or an opposition party. From today, not even tomorrow, if any government department advertises with Nation Media, know you are on your way home," he announced.

The basis of Kuria's criticism towards NMG was a report that claimed that Ksh6 billion in oil funds were abused through botched tenders issued by the Trade and Agriculture ministries.

Various stakeholders took sides during the ensuing uproar, but President Ruto defended the foul-mouthed CS as freedom of expression, revealing that he too has been a victim of heavy criticism by the media.

"We must defend the free media, we must defend their right to criticize, to say whatever it is that they want to say even to write propaganda, to say the wrong things, to write falsehoods.

"But we must defend the right of those who hold the media to account, who call them out. When the media goes rogue, we must also defend the right of people like Moses Kuria to speak their minds, the same way we are defending the media to say what they want, including the wrong ones," he stated.

Later, Gatundu South Member of Parliament (MP) Gabriel Kagombe revealed that he will on Wednesday, July 5 introduce a Bill in the National Assembly seeking to reduce government advertisements on mainstream media.