State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed on Tuesday, July 4, held talks with editors drawn from various media houses to debate President William Ruto's agenda.
Addressing the press, Mohamed noted that the discussions would be held frequently to unpack the interventions made by the Kenya Kwanza administration in line with its manifesto.
The meeting also touched on the vision and priorities put in place by the government.
"We had a meeting with media editors to engage them in an informal discussion and give them an overview of the vision and priorities of the sector interventions that the President is undertaking to realise the transformation of our country through the bottom-up economic agenda," he stated.
Further, the spokesperson heaped praise on the government's commitment to fulfill the campaign pledges outlined in the manifesto.
"As I told them, there is a clear correlation between the actions that have been taken by his administration with the objectives outlined in the manifesto.
"It's exciting that we have a President committed to following through what he promised in the campaign," he added.
The meeting was held days after Royal Media Services (RMS) chairman Samuel Kamau Macharia held a private meeting at State House.
Sources close to the incident revealed that the meeting was a private affair between Ruto and the RMS boss.
The media has recently been under scrutiny by Ruto's administration as a section of Cabinet Secretaries accused the media of bias and negative portrayal of the ruling government.
Trade CS Moses Kuria threatened to cut government advertising to Nation Media Group (NMG) following an investigative piece that exposed the misappropriation of over Ksh6 billion in an oil scandal allegedly orchestrated by the Ministries of Trade and Agriculture.
This led to an uproar as various stakeholders took sides while weighing in on the matter. President Ruto, however, defended the CS's remarks - arguing that it was a freedom of expression.
“We must defend the free media, their rights to criticise whatever they want even to write falsehood. But we must also defend the people who hold the media to account,” Ruto stated on June 21, 2023.
