Uasin Gishu Woman Rep. Gladys Boss Shollei has criticized media houses for being unpatriotic by opposing the government and promoting negative narratives.
Speaking in Parliament, Shollei accused these outlets of spreading stories of despair instead of focusing on the positive strides made under President William Ruto’s leadership.
Shollei singled out Nation Media Group’s NTV, claiming the station misinterpreted President Ruto’s State of the Nation address.
“I want to direct my attention to the unpatriotic media houses in this country, particularly NTV which attempted to wrongly analyze the state of the nation address,” she said.
The Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly challenged these media houses to reflect on the country’s progress.
“Has the shilling strengthened, yes or no? Has inflation dropped? Every Kenyan knows that the prices of petroleum, unga, and electricity have gone down,” Shollei stated, questioning the media’s portrayal of the economy.
Shollei also dared these outlets to investigate government initiatives.
“I dare them, those unpatriotic Kenyans and media houses, has fertilizer been distributed to registered farmers. Towards food security, they can use their investigative journalists to go to the granary and check if we have millions of bags of maize, beans and wheat in our reserves. Rather than speak from their studios, they should go and film them from the stores,” she said.
She further asked, “Do they dispute that farmers are now being paid Ksh 50 per litre of milk? Do they question whether teachers have been hired or if students are receiving 95 percent funding for their school fees? The media cannot simply create stories from their screens.”
Additionally, Shollei commended President Ruto for addressing femicide and gender-based violence. She emphasized the importance of parents teaching children preventative measures.
“Being able to prevent femicide and gender-based violence requires all of us to be vigilant. On femicide, we need to talk to our children not to put themselves in vulnerable situations so that we can be part of prevention rather than going after these people after they have committed the crime,” Shollei stated.
