President William Ruto has launched an attack against The Standard newspaper, dismissing its latest report on his planned Central Kenya tour.
In a statement issued by the Head of the Presidential Communication Service, Munyori Buku, on Monday, March 31, the government condemned the publication for what it termed a “descent into the bottomless tabloid abyss. “
Buku has dismissed the claim as “manifestly false, dangerously irresponsible, reckless, and inciteful,” arguing that its reporting was based on falsehoods.
According to the newspaper, there ate reports of former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga’s involvement in mobilization efforts ahead of Ruto’s tour to Mount Kenya region, which raises questions, “though planners deny the illegal sect’s involvement as backup plans to shore up numbers for optics.”
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Here is the Full Statement from Ruto
The lead story in today’s (Monday, March 31st) edition of The Standard marks yet another descent into the bottomless tabloid abyss that the publication now appears so determined to inhabit.
This latest installment in its campaign of reckless sensationalism, flagrant hostility, and thinly veiled propaganda is not only anchored on tenuous, shaky conjecture but also laced with outright falsehoods, all seemingly orchestrated to prop up a publication beleaguered by thinning circulation, plummeting readership, and chronic commercial stagnation.
The outrageous, outlandish claim that a proscribed group is involved in planning the President’s tour of the Mt Kenya region this week is not only manifestly false, but it is also dangerously irresponsible, reckless, and inciteful. Had the newspaper exercised even the bare minimum of journalistic integrity, it would have discovered the cold, hard facts:
That the President has held consultative meetings with regional governors and National Government officials to plan the visit; that Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has similarly engaged Members of Parliament and Senators from the region in preparation; and that the local leadership, security agencies, and communities are more than capable of coordinating a presidential tour without resorting to the involvement of nefarious groups.
Instead, ‘The Standard’ clings to its favorite tools: Unnamed sources, imaginary claims, and shadowy insinuations; the telltale signs of journalism in free fall. The use of phantom informants, conveniently vague and unverifiable, exposes a newsroom more committed to concocting fiction than reporting facts to perpetuate contrived public anger against the duly elected government.
In an act of pure contempt for the principles of credible journalism, the paper didn’t even bother to seek a comment from the Presidency— a fundamental tenet of responsible reporting. But this is hardly surprising from a publication that knows too well that a fabricated story collapses the moment it is subjected to the slightest of scrutiny.
What ‘The Standard’ has been engaged in is not journalism; it is gossip and innuendo masquerading as news, rumor staged as fact, and desperation disguised as reporting.
If the newspaper has chosen to weaponize misinformation to prop up its waning relevance, it should prepare to be held to account not only by the institutions it maligns, but also by the public and even the fast-disappearing readership whose trust it so carelessly continues to betray.
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