President William Ruto steered clear of picking sides while addressing the ongoing onslaught against the media by Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria.
The President played it safe, assuring that his government will defend the media from the Minister while also faulting the media for putting him(Ruto) “through hell”.
“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 and say the wrong things. We must defend that right,” Ruto said.
Adding: “But we must also defend the right of those who hold the media to account or who call out the media when the media goes rogue. We must also defend the rights of people like Moses Kuria to speak their mind the same way we are defending the media to say all the things they want including the wrong ones,” Ruto said Wednesday after flagging off this year’s Safari Rally in Naivasha.
“I saw one journalist saying that the President should defend us from Moses Kuria, that’s fine; I will do my bit, but I want to ask them who is going to defend me from rogue media because I go through hell all the time,” Ruto wondered.
The President added: “So I think we need a fair balance; and I think if they are feeling pain about what others say about them, it should tell them there are people who feel pain when they write falsehoods about others. And I hope this will enable us calibrate what we say either way- against other people or for other people- I think it will bring us together.”
