The People Daily newspaper has issued an apology to President Uhuru Kenyatta following a mishap in their publication claiming the Head of State stole votes to win the 2017 General Election.
In the statement released on Wednesday, September 1, the publication noted that the content was published without passing through requisite verification process.
The apology was further extended to former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, who was part of the subjects for the story titled 'Why Raila Faces Steep Climb to Win 2022 Poll.'
"In yesterday’s (Tuesday, August 31) edition of People Daily, we published content suggesting that the 2017 election results were rigged. This was as a result of production oversight which saw unverified content published," published the daily.
"We take this early opportunity to withdraw the said content and apologise to President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga for the embarrassment the text may have caused them."
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke on Wednesday, September 1, a editor at Mediamax, the company that owns People Daily, noted that the mishap was erroneous
The story, which was analysing Raila's chances of ascending to the top seat, ranked times the former Premier had ran for the Presidency but failed to clinch the seat.
The article noted that Odinga had run for Presidency in 1997 and lost to former President Daniel Moi before making another attempt in 2007 against former President Mwai Kibaki.
He also ran in 2013 and 2017, losing the two elections to the incumbent, President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"He made another attempt for the Presidency in August 2017 against Uhuru Kenyatta and Uhuru Kenyatta stole votes," read the erroneous report.
The 2017 polls were disputed by Raila, who was the leader of the opposition at the time, claiming that the system had been hacked to rig him out.
The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice (Rtd.) David Maraga, nullified the election leading to a rerun in October 2017.
Weeks to the election, however, Raila pulled out from the election and asked his supporters to boycott the polls leading to 39 per cent turnout.
Uhuru won with 98 per cent of the vote cast in the rerun.
