Kenyans.co.ke has gathered data on Citizen TV’s coverage of Azimio Presidential aspirant Raila Odinga and Kenya Kwanza Presidential candidate William Ruto.
According to the data, Citizen TV covered Raila more than Ruto in the two weeks between May 20 and June 3, 2022. Raila was accorded 300.65 minutes (57.77 per cent) while Ruto had 219.82 minutes (42.23 per cent).
The total amount of time accorded to the two in the last two weeks totalled 520.47 minutes.
The data covers all news segments including Day Break, Sema Na Citizen, 1pm News, Nipashe and the 9pm News. It also covers news from the coalition officials including the Deputy President nominees.
In all the videos sampled, none of them portrayed the Deputy President or Raila in a negative way as the DP claimed.
On Thursday, June 2, Deputy President William Ruto announced that he would boycott the presidential debates scheduled for July, citing bias from Citizen TV, Inooro TV, Kameme FM and Daily Nation.
On Saturday, June 4, during the presentation of his nomination papers to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Ruto affirmed that he will not be part of the debate, further asking the electoral body chairman, Wafula Wanyonyi Chebukati, to reign in and ensure that contenders get fair coverage.
Ruto - through the William Samoei Ruto Presidential Campaign Secretariat Director of Communications, Hussein Mohammed - had cited Citizen TV for what he termed as unfair coverage.
The DP alleged that the station had taken political sides, further challenging the Kenyan media to make it public whether they are supporting a political faction.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, Royal Media Services Editorial Director, Linus Kaikai, noted that the media house encourages audit from the public, noting that they have accorded all aspirants airplay.
"We are not commenting on the issue but we encourage such audits including live broadcast moments like today where Ruto had his time uninterrupted for hours," stated Kaikai.
"We leave this information for the public to consume as we are always open to scrutiny."
He went ahead to note that DP Ruto's running mate, Rigathi Gachagua, had been interviewed and covered enxtensively on Inooro TV, Inooro FM and Ramogi TV, as well as other Royal Media Services' outlets.
Kaikai also encouraged stakeholders to audit all the RMS stations for longer periods to ascertain its coverage of politicians and other newsmakers.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke earlier, Hussein Mohammed, the Director of Communications in William Samoei Ruto Presidential Campaign Secretariat, noted that Ruto's camp would address the matter at a later hour.
“I will get back to you on the matter,” his response read.
In December 2021, Kenyans.co.ke released the Media Report Card July - September 2021 which analysed the coverage of the then six aspirants by top TV stations, Citizen TV, KTN News, NTV, Inooro TV, TV 47 and K24 TV.
The six included Deputy President William Ruto (UDA), Raila Odinga (ODM), and the One Kenya Alliance co-principals, Musalia Mudavadi (ANC), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Gideon Moi (KANU) and Moses Wetangula (Ford-Kenya).
Citizen TV, Inooro TV, TV47, NTV, and KTN News allocated more prime time coverage to DP Ruto than Raila, in the third quarter of the year 2021.
K24 TV, on the other hand, covered Raila more.