The Standard Group (SG) on Wednesday, April 4, cast blame on the government over the recent online attacks against the media house.
In an editorial delivered by Ken Mijungu, the media stable attributed the genesis of the attacks to its decision to call out ICT Principal Secretary Edward Kisiang'ani over the government's decision to award the MyGov distribution tender exclusively to The Star Newspaper.
MyGov is the only official government medium for all public sector print advertisements. SG had protested this decision to grant the distribution rights to a specific media house instead of keeping the float open to other media houses with nationwide reach.
"To understand the genesis, we ask who benefits from this. It began soon after we called out ICT PS. We told Professor Kisiangani not to cut the hand that fed him. We were fighting for our rights. One of the main sources of revenue for media houses had been shrunk significantly by his orders," the media group posed.
"We highlighted how instrumental the media has been in advancing his cause and career to the point that he got noticed and we maintain tonight that Prof the media is not your enemy."
Additionally, SG called for the intervention of the Ministry of Interior to track the individuals whom they claim peddled false narratives about the media house in the past three weeks.
"Constantly, we have seen sponsored hashtags on X generated by some shadowy figures and advanced by bots and enemies of the media."
In particular, the KTN Anchor referenced that the mandate to investigate fell on Interior PS Raymond Omollo's lap who has the capacity to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the government is not in any way behind the recent attacks.
"The question is, who benefits from the negative publicity? It's obvious, it is not the competition because they have been targeted. It's not the public or the viewer. We will remind you that the media is the most trusted estate.
"We place our tribulations on the government's doorstep. Interior CS Kithure Kindiki, protect us from these bullies and fake news propagandists. You are able. You have a constitutional mandate to do this. To PS Raymond Omollo, this falls on your docket.
"Find these falsehood peddlers and bullies, you know what to do with them, we dare say you know who is behind these attacks. Prove to the nation that it is not the government by ending these senseless attacks not only to this institution but also to individuals."
Standard Group further advised the national government to pay the debt owed to media houses to rescue the fourth estate from financial instability.
"The National government owes media houses a lot of money, the best they can do is to pay up. Irresponsible thinking that starving the media is a means to beating them to submission has never worked. These are individuals with families and you'll not just kill their careers but disadvantage a whole generation," Mijungu remarked.
PS Kisiang'ani's Take on MyGov Tender
In January 2024, PS Kisiang'ani explained that several media houses underwent a thorough vetting process for the advertised tender.
These included Standard Group, Mediamax, Nation Media Group and Postal Corporation of Kenya.
He noted that the Standard Group missed out on the bidding process after failing to submit the necessary documents showing its print run in the past six months.
