Nyokabi Accuses A Section Of The Media Of Working With Opposition To Derail Jubilee’s Progress.

Kiambu Women rep. Ann Nyokabi addressing Gachagi residents during a visit to supply foodstuff to the hungry.

Kiambu Women Representative Ann Nyokabi Gathecha has castigated a section of the media whom she accused of being used by the opposition to create confusion within Jubilee Party (JP) through relaying wrong information to the members of Public.

Terming as unprofessional and irresponsible the recent publication by the Standard Media Group that claimed JP had dropped the use of ‘Smartcards’ in its registration of members, Nyokabi said that it was wrong for a national media house to stoop to the level of playing politics at the expense of the democracy. She therefore warned Jubilee members to be wary of people being used to create confusion within the party through false information and propaganda.

“We are aware that the opposition is planting their people to vie as Jubilee candidates with a view to flounder the party. Deep inside their minds, they know that they have already lost the elections. That is why they are hell-bent to place all kinds of hurdles to derail Jubilee’s progress. It is however very wrong for newspapers and channels to deliberately write untruths with an intent to sway the politics of the country to a particular way. It is sad to see the freedom of press becoming freedom of purse,” said Nyokabi.

Nyokabi said that the purchase of the Jubilee smartcards was geared towards assisting the party fund its affairs as the money raised was what the party used in its logistics and campaigns.

There has been concerns in the country about how the media was covering the Kenyan politics. Overall, the public have witnessed more and more political bias in news coverage today. With politics becoming ever more entwined with business interests, corporatisation of news has extended to the electoral space, dealing a severe blow to the independence of journalism and creating double jeopardy for democracy, on one hand removing the level playing ground for the contestants and on the other removing  whatever vestige was left of fairness and honesty in politics.

In this era of privatisation and globalisation, media has become profitable corporates and like any other corporate, profit making has become their sole aim.

Meanwhile, speaking to the press after distributing foodstuff to drought-stricken residents of Gachagi Slums and Makongeni Estate in Thika West Sub-County, Nyokabi reckoned that the 47 Women MPs started on challenging position, having assumed office without any kitty to initiate development projects.

“Barely a year after we received our first government funding, we have been able to do a lot for our people. For instance, I have spent part of my kitty to improve infrastructure and procure equipment in 65 out of 152 institutions for the disabled within Kiambu County. In the next two weeks, we are going to grant money to 300 youth and women business startups and groups. At the same time, we are in the process of registering another 1,000 youth for short-courses vocational training. All these would not have been possible if we didn’t have such funding,” said the Women Rep.