Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot on Tuesday, October 1, accused Kennedy Murithi a journalist from NTV of misreporting news about Parliament's defiance of President Uhuru Kenyatta's austerity measures.
The political affairs reporter, on the previous day, had stated that Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni had formulated a bill to lock out the scrutiny of money allocated to Parliament.
During the stations morning show AmLive, Cheruiyot threatened to team up with other MPs to have the reporter kicked out of the Parliament by withdrawing his privileges.
"Kennedy Murithi is my friend but I have told him that very soon we'll consider as Parliament, withdrawing his parliamentary privileges because as a reporter, he owes it to Kenyans to be factual in the reporting and to understand his job.
"To the best of my knowledge, that report is too amateur and smirks of ill-will. It's not the first time Kennedy Muriithi is misreporting about Parliament. I've seen this on countless occasions and this time I called him out," the senator condemned.
He wondered why the journalist didn't get the sponsor of the Bill, MP Jeremiah Kioni to expound on its contents.
Former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwle, who was also in studio, jumped to the defence of the reporter, citing freedom of the press.
"Senator, you owe us a bit of tolerance. You know you are a very big man. You're a senator and commissioner of the Parliamentary Service Commission so when you say you might consider taking action against the reporter, we get scared.
"As you enjoy your high status, please respect our constitution that allows the media all the freedom they have to do up to and including investigative journalism.
"If the young man has done investigative journalism and found that there was mischief which is on the way, he has done well to tell us members of the public.
"Honestly, he's not talking about your salary, he's talking about public funds in Parliament which the MP wants to remove from oversight. He's not being harsh to you guy," Khalwale argued.
When Senator Cheruiyot advised NTV to send a more experienced reporter to the House, the former Kakamega legislator responded that the Kennedy had been attached to the Parliament longer than the Kericho politician had served.
