President William Ruto has come out strongly against The Standard newspaper over its headline likening his decision to work with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to 'Judas betrayal.'
Speaking on Sunday, April 20, Ruto condemned the newspaper, suggesting that the publication was pushing a divisive agenda.
“The Bible says that it's good when people live in unity and God sends his blessings where people live together and in harmony. Those who don't know God are telling us in newspapers that unity is betrayal."
“How shameful and tragic, while the bishop is telling us that nothing is impossible when we are united. The devil has a different message against unity in our nation. May the devil be defeated," he said.
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This comes barely a month after State House called out the newspaper following a front-page story linking Ruto’s Mt. Kenya tour to the outlawed Mungiki sect.
The newspaper alleged that former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga was involved in mobilizing support for Ruto’s visit to the region.
However, in a statement on Monday, March 31, Head of Presidential Communication Service Munyori Buku denounced the story as false, accusing the publication of engaging in propaganda.
"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 statement read.
Buku warned that the publication would be held accountable not only by the institutions it has maligned but also by the public should it continue spreading misinformation.
"What The Standard has been engaged in is not journalism; it is gossip and innuendo masquerading as news, in rumours staged as fact, and desperation disguised as reporting. If the newspaper has chosen to weaponise 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,” the statement concluded.
