CS Joe Mucheru makes official complaint to Media Council based on NMG’s defamation of government

Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication and Technology made an official complaint to the Media Council of Kenya Complaints Commission based on Nation Media Group (NMG) slanderous and false reporting of government.

In a statement read by CS ICT Joe Mucheru, “I take great exception with the manner in which Nation Media Group has over the last week sought to depict the government as corrupt, inept and full of thieves through deliberately slanted and skewed reporting of the Ministry of Health interim report.”

The complaint which cited that on Wednesday 26th October 2016, The Business Daily carried a leader story titled; Revealed: Taxpayers lose Sh5bn in NYS-style Afya House theft. The story, in its 1st and 3rd paragraph, further went on to state that officials at the ministry had stolen more than Kshs. 5 Billion. On the same day, NTV carried a story in its 9pm news titled System Ya Majambazi. This news story characterized all Government officers as thugs, a characterized based on the same interim audit report whose accuracy had not been verified.

Business Daily claims that their story relied on a leaked “internal audit report’.

Mr. Mucheru further stated, “As anyone with the understanding of business or financial journalism may understand, interim audits are documents that raise queries for management to respond to or clarify. It is only after a final audit report is produced that one would quote such a document for reference purposes.”

In an article from Daily Nation, Nation Media Group Editor-in-Chief Tom Mshindi responded saying that the company had taken note of Mr Mucheru’s statement.

“We do note that it is not signed and at this point we just take note of it. Since it is addressed to the Complaints Commission of the Media Council of Kenya, we shall wait for directions from the Media Council of Kenya and obey summons issued,” he said.

“If it comes to us having to defend ourselves and the work that we have done, we shall be glad to do so,” Mr Mshindi added.

In his statement the CS demanded that action be taken by the Media Council, that Business Daily and NTV be compelled to show where, in the interim audit report, it is stated that health ministry officials stole more than Kshs. 5.3Bn, that publications tables proof of theft by government officers as contained in their newspaper report and that NMG, specifically Business Daily and NTV, apologises, with the same veracity as they covered the original story.