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Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Friday, June 23, 2023, sustained attacks against the media, dismissing criticism from the press over attacks from senior Kenya Kwanza leaders.

Speaking when he presided over a graduation ceremony at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), the country’s second in command said the press should embrace criticism as more is yet to come.

He argued that the media must be held to account for their reporting.

“For a long time, our friends in the media were used to criticizing us (politicians) and nobody used to question them and now things have changed because no situation is permanent. We took the criticism in strides and we agreed that they should hold us to account but things have changed and now we are saying somebody needs to hold the media to account over the things they write,” Gachagua said.

He defended Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria’s recent comments against the media, saying the media must be “countered with facts when they spread lies”.

“So (the media) welcome to the world of Moses Kiarie Kuria… I am so happy with the way the media has reacted to criticism. It’s good you are feeling the way we feel. You have been hitting us left, right and centre and nobody has ever held you to account. Moses Kuria has asked you a few questions and you are all over crying, you have seen nothing,” he said.

Gachagua said other leaders should join CS Kuria in calling out the media when it goes astray.

“We want to ask leaders in this county to join Moses Kuria to hold the press to account. They must be accountable for what they write and say. And if they write lies they must be countered with facts. There is nobody who is immune to accountability. Everybody must be accountable for their actions.”

Reacting to recent court orders barring CS Kuria from making offensive comments against media practitioners, the deputy president said the “courts must be fair to leaders.”

“The same way the courts have been persuaded to gag Moses Kuria from holding the press to account I want the same courts when leaders go to court to ask them to restrain the media from criticizing them, the same courts must give same orders so that we are fair. We must have equity and fairness. This is a new world.

Kuria early this week faced a backlash from members of the public and media stakeholders following his derogatory remarks against the Nation Media Group (NMG).

A visibly aggrieved Kuria on Sunday issued threats against any government agency or persons that would advertise with NMG after the media house published a story linking him to a controversial Ksh6 billion edible oil transaction.

He then took the war online where he referred to journalists from the company as prostitutes.

Ruto defends Kuria

President William Ruto also defended him, saying, Kuria, like any other Kenyan, has a right to speak his mind.

Speaking in Naivasha, when he flagged off the 2023 WRC Safari Rally on Wednesday, the Head of State said in as much as it was right for the media to call out Kuria, it was also his right and that of like-minded Kenyans to attack the press anytime they are in the wrong.

“We must defend the media, the free media. We must defend their right to criticize, to say whatever they want to say even to write propaganda, even to say the wrong things. We must defend that right,” President Ruto said.

“We must also defend the right of those who hold the media to account. 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 to say including the wrong ones.”