Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen on Wednesday, August 25, criticised the Citizen TV coverage over two stories aired about Deputy President William Ruto during the prime time bulletin.
Speaking to Citizen TV news anchor Jeff Koinange at JKLive, Murkomen put the veteran anchor to task over Turkish businessman Harun Aydin's reports which claimed that Ruto had secured a Ksh15 billion loan from a local bank to aid Aydin set up a business in Uganda.
The Senator affirmed that the DP, in his own words during an interview at Inooro TV, stated that the loan was granted to an East African businessman in Uganda and not Aydin as purported by the media.
"You know you people criticise us, so you need to get feedback from us. In the last year, there have been consistent attacks on the DP by print and electronic media.
"You ran a story on Harun, a wrongly reported story. The DP talks about him calling a local bank to give a loan to an East African businessman in Uganda, you report that the DP had stated that the businessman was Harun Aydin, the interview was at a radio station in RMS, and it is properly recorded. Within all those minutes there was no rebuttal.
Further, he castigated the story aired about Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka in which the party leader accused Ruto on various issues in a no-holds-barred approach.
Murkomen pointed out that Citizen TV ran Kalonzo's attack on the DP for five straight minutes but only gave Ruto's spokesman David Mugonyi five seconds of rebuttal.
"You ran another story about Kalonzo for five minutes accusing the DP on various issues. You give his Press Secretary David Mugonyi five seconds to respond," he wondered.
The veteran anchor, who took to the defense of the media house, affirmed that the station has widely covered stories about the DP - pointing out the recent interview of Ruto at Inooro TV.
This was, however, contested by Murkomen who claimed that the media was under pressure to give in to state demands.
"The plan in government is that if you run a good story about the DP in your media house, you're denied payment through the government advertising agency," the senator addressed Jeff who refuted the statement.
The media house was also on the spot recently for ending the interview with former Mukurwe-ini MP Kabando wa Kabando in a seemingly premature manner.
Minutes after the show ended, netizens pointed out the unexpected manner in which the show ended with some speculating that the host, Jeff deviated from his normal style of ending the interview.
