Jeff Koinange and Victoria Rubadiri were compelled to apologize to General Service Unit (GSU) officer Bakari Juma Mwanauli live on Citizen TV on Sunday, December 3.
The two apologized over a story that was aired back in 2020 exposing how various travellers circumvented the restriction of movement in and out of Nairobi at the height of COVID-19.
In the feature covered by a former reporter Purity Mwambia dubbed Virus Safaris, the showed the GSU officer engaging with different motorists at the Rironi roadblock.
Mwambia narrated and recorded the whole experience where she travelled from Nairobi to Eldoret beating different roadblocks and police checks along the way despite former President Uhuru Kenyatta imposing travel restrictions to contain the virus.
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She uncovered the workings of the driver who collaborated with several people to move past the roadblocks, especially at Mai Mahiu where the car was driven past the police by a different man.
Mwambia was, however, forced to take a matatu to Eldoret as the driver was determined to pick up other passengers from Kisumu back to Nairobi.
Three years later, Citizen TV was forced to apologize to the GSU officer who was captured during the expose. Both Jeff and Rubadiri noted that the TV station did not intend to paint the officer who was then stationed at the Rironi roadblock in a bad light.
"In our publication on July 5, 2020, at 9 pm titled 'Virus Safaris' we had a story touching one Mr Bakari Juma Mwanauli, a member of the National Police Services (GSU) then stationed at the Rironi roadblock.
Our attention has been drawn to the fact that the story might have portrayed Mr Bakari negatively which was not our intention at all.
We do apologize for any inconvenience which we might have caused as the result of the said publication," both Jeff and Rubadiri stated.
