The Daily Nation on Tuesday responded to claims of interference by State House that influenced the resignation of eight columnists.
In a statement seen by Kenyans.co.ke, Nation Media Group noted with regret the position taken by the columnists to decide to stop writing for their publication.
"We respect their right to take a collective decision, although each of them had an individual contract that we have diligently honoured over the years we have worked with them.
"We wish to reiterate that overall we have honoured our obligation to respect their views and did not tamper with their positions except to correct basic errors," the statement read in part.
NMG further stated that it was founded on a bedrock of independent voices, diversity and freedom of expression.
[caption caption="Some of the columnists at a press conference on March 27, 2018"]
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"It is in this regard that we developed, through a process of public participation and publicly published our editorial policy to guide our conduct and journalism. We believe that the principles of independence, fairness and balance, as espoused in our editorial policy, are key to promoting the democratic space whilst being mindful of the impact the information in the public space plays in shaping opinions.
"We wish to reassure our readers and stakeholders that we continue to be committed to media freedom whilst delivering value in line with their expectations," the media house concluded.
However former Daily Nation columnist Kwamchetsi Makhoha refuted NMG's statement emphasizing that it lost its independence as it dodged the question posed.
"We are telling them that they are not operating independently. By that statement, they are avoiding to address issues that we have raised," he told Kenyans.co.ke on the phone.
He added that their action was to initiate change in the media house by forcing it to reflect on the independence of writers as the media was no longer in control of the news.
[caption caption="Statement by NMG"]
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On what next, Makhoha stated that the newspaper was not the only publication that he could write for.
"There are numerous other opportunities we can explore such as broadcasting and podcasting not to mention other journalists have blogs with a huge following," he explained.
On Tuesday, Makhoha quit from contributing to the newspaper together with Rasna Warah, Muthoni Wanyeki, Fr Gabriel Dolan, Maina Kiai, Gabrielle Lynch, George Kegoro and Nic Cheeseman.
