Brian Mayodi
The Media Council of Kenya has started an extensive investigation into the coverage of the alleged police raid at the residence of former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i.
The council, which is the legislative organisation in charge of regulating media practice in the nation, has requested that media outlets provide raw footage and photos from their coverage of the incident.
According to a statement from the Council, it wrote to a number of media outlets, including Royal Media Services, Nation Media, and Standard Group, requesting access to the recordings and images.
The council is also requesting detailed responses from the media outlets regarding their coverage of the alleged raid, which received a lot of attention on Wednesday night.
The reports that an elite squad went to the home of the former CS to arrest or harass him were refuted by the government, which also denied deploying security personnel at Matiang’i’s residence.
The state has urged individuals with information to contact the police so they can conduct investigations.
The council stated that there were severe moral and ethical concerns raised by the media’s failure to publish any images or footage of the occurrence.
“Providing only statements by lawyers and allies of Dr Matiang’i on one side and denials by government officials the next day creates confusion as to who is speaking the truth,’ MCK said in a statement signed by its Chief Executive Officer David Omwoyo.
The Council stated that after receiving the media outlets’ responses to the information request, it will decide on the following line of action.
