They Are Prostitutes: CS Moses Kuria Attacks Media Again Despite Court Order

Trade Cabinet Secretary (CS) Moses Kuria, on Saturday, June 24 took on the media once again but this time round resorted to using foul language against them.

Kuria, who was at Kimorori grounds in Kenol town, Murang'a County for a food distribution event, turned the heat on media houses once more despite a court order preventing him from attacking media practitioners verbally.

In an insolent tirade addressed in his local dialect, Kuria warned that he would give back in equal measure the alleged painful ordeal he got from the media, pleading with them however to allow the Kenya Kwanza government to get down to work for the period of their term.

Furthermore, the firebrand Cabinet Secretary accused the media of being in bed with the Raila Odinga-led opposition Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party

“I said recently an arrow in the night…these prostitutes from the media, how they come at me is how I will respond to them.

"The way they feel hurt when I call them that, is the same way we are hurt when they wrongly accuse us…and they should give us time to work, they were with the previous government for 10 years,” he said as quoted by Citizen TV.

The CS earlier and notably questioned the High Court order gagging him from remarks against the media, wondering how the media houses in Kenya moved to court to muzzle him from uttering or expressing any insulting and demeaning words against any media house in the wake of attacks against the Nation Media Group (NMG).

"The Media Houses obtained a gag order against me at the High Court. In today's newspaper, they have deducted me as a dog.

"Where is the justice here? Is this fair? You gag me as you continue to disparage and malign me. Grossly unfair," he lamented in a tweet.

On Wednesday, June 21, the High Court issued an injunction order against Kuria, barring him from uttering or expressing any insulting and demeaning words against any media practitioner. The order was given by Justice Lawrence Mugambi following an application filed by Charles Mugane, and pending the determination of a petition he filed.

At the same time, President William Ruto took Moses Kuria's side and narrated his own troubles at the hands of the media, despite assuring that the government will defend press freedoms in the wake of CS Kuria's verbal attacks.

Speaking on Friday, June 23 in Iten after launching development projects with CS Kuria, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua urged politicians to unite and hold the media to account just like any other constitutionally mandated authority.

"The time to tell the media truth has come. They used to tell us the truth when they were supporting Azimio La Umoja (the opposition). We will now counter their lies with facts.

"The media should leave Moses Kuria alone, if they want to attack anyone, let them come for me. When you were attacking us, no one was complaining, but now the tables have turned. You were the ones sharing fake opinion polls claiming Ruto, and I will never win. They do not want to write anything positive about us," Gachagua alleged. 

The CS on the same day moved to court seeking to restrain media houses from publishing and broadcasting inaccurate, malicious reports about him.