The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) was forced to intervene after an online uproar erupted against Daily Nation's back-to-back Deputy President William Ruto cover stories.
On the night of Sunday, February 23, the publication shared the cover page of its Monday, February 24 issue with the headline 'Making of a Breakup' with an image of President Uhuru Kenyatta shaking hands with Ruto.
The previous day's paper had also run a cover story of DP Ruto titled 'Man Under Siege' and illustrated with an image of the DP surrounded by some of his seemingly troubled close allies among them former Sports CS Rashid Echesa. Ruto's response on Twitter was a string of laughter emojis which was followed by several attacks against the respected publication from several of his allies.
The Monday story, authored by Justus Wanga, stated that the DP had fallen out of favour with his boss with the military equipment scandal in which Echesa was implicated threatening to further strain the relationship between the two - that was once was described as bromance by the news media.
"While the DP struggles to extricate himself from the murky saga, he will be acutely aware that a reputation already tarnished by allegations of rampant corruption has taken another terrible hit.
"This might raise questions about his suitability for high office, and up the ante in the now open feud with President Kenyatta that has divided the ruling Jubilee Party down the middle," reads an excerpt from the Wanga's article.
On Monday morning Twitter was ablaze with attacks against the publication with a section of netizens advising the publication to officially change its name to 'Daily Ruto' under the hashtag #DailyNationPropaganda.
"Daily Ruto / Daily Sugoi had to say this today! Smear campaign for DP Ruto continues! Fighting someone through githeri media is a strategy that will never work in Kenya. It is sad to see Kenyan media sinking this low," Shared Sandra Chepchumba with a disparaging reference to the overzealous coverage of the viral Githeriman from the 2017 general election.
As the twitterstorm raged on, ODM director of communications Philip Etale weighed in on the threats by netizens to boycott the publication..
Etale argued that the DP was not influential enough to call for a boycott of any product or service in the country as compared to ODM leader Raila Odinga who in the aftermath of the 2017 general election had called for a boycott of several mainstream products.
"Boycott paid-up headlines? My friend, we shall buy and read those newspapers. No one other than Raila Odinga has the capacity to call for a product boycott and people listen. Wacheni kelele. (stop making noise)," he shared.
Lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi had on Saturday, February 22, questioned the relationship between investigative agencies and the publication after former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga raise an alarm arguing that 'intel from investigators [was] raising the issue of the right to fair trial.'
"I repeat DPP Noordin has an obligatory constitutional duty to investigate why crime investigation files are first handed over to the Daily Nation then to his office. Isn't the DN being used to (a) cloud his judgement (b) exert pressure (c) rally public opinion against the accused," wondered Abdullahi.
