Ruto to Boycott Upcoming Presidential Debate over Media Bias

Deputy President William Ruto has announced he will not attend the planned presidential debate, citing media bias against his campaign.

In a statement, WSR Campaign Communications Director Hussein Mohammed claimed that media houses have been biased in covering the Kenya Kwanza Alliance campaigns around the country.

"We have noted with much concern the repeated and continued bias and propaganda in a section of Kenya’s mainstream media in abuse of statutory terms of license and violations of constitutional freedoms," read part of the statement.

“While their nefarious intentions remain inconsequential to an enlightened people, we demand fair play as a matter of right as well as professional decency.”

Hussein stated that political news is a matter of public interest and its coverage, according to the Media Council Act 2013, has to be done fairly, accurately, and with all sides of the story being reported.

“This has been deliberately contravened, consciously ignored and brazenly abused by the sections of the media.

Ruto singled out Royal Media Services which he accused of converting its platforms, especially Citizen TV, Inooro TV, and Citizen Radio to official campaign mouthpieces of the Azimio La Umoja.

“The Daily Nation complements these abuses by becoming their print counterpart,” the statement adds.

Hussein said they expect the media to play their rightful role in cultivating a healthy, robust, and inclusive discourse, adding that Kenya’s democracy depends on the media “to make our political environment less divisive and less toxic.”

"Under the current partisan media environment, we have advised our candidate against participating in the presidential debate," Hussein added.

The presidential debate scheduled for July is being organized by the Media Owners Association, the Media Council of Kenya, and the Kenya Editors Guild.