The One Kenya Alliance (OKA) has blasted Nation newspaper over its coverage of the Mombasa State House meetings headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Musalia Mudavadi (ANC), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Gideon Moi (KANU) and Moses Wetangula (Ford Kenya) opined that the newspaper was openly favouring ODM Leader Raila Odinga who was an invitee to the State House discussions on August 18, 2021.
In a statement on Thursday, August 19, 2021, the four principals challenged the Nation to come out and openly declare their support for Odinga.
Further, they accused the media house of misrepresenting the facts of the meeting and added that they were not summoned by the President as widely reported.
"Since we started holding consultative meetings with the President, Nation Newspapers have embarked on a crusade to fabricate their own facts of the meetings in favour of one invitee to the meetings and presidential aspirant."
"We hereby state categorically that our visits to State House aren’t summons to browbeat us into supporting one candidate or the other, as the distorted Nation narratives suggest," the statement from OKA read in part.
The four principals called on all media houses to report facts and if they wish to support any candidate in the 2022 General Election they should come out and make that clear as stipulated by international media guidelines.
"If Nation feels strongly about the candidature of any individual, we invite the media house to do the ethical and decent thing; publicly announce its decision to support that individual," OKA principals remarked.
OKA was irked by a story the publication had written a story dubbed "OKA ‘cedes ground on Raila’s 2022 bid" which indicated that President Kenyatta had asked the four principals to support Raila.
The publication indicated that President Kenyatta had moved closer to brokering a cease-fire between Odinga and OKA principals to back the ODM party leader in the 2022 presidential poll.
Further, the publication claimed that Uhuru told the OKA leaders to start disbanding their coalition and prepare to join one alliance that would bring in more leaders to reflect the face of Kenya ahead of the 2022 elections.
