Deputy President William Ruto's campaign team has advised him against participating in the presidential debate slated for July.
The WSR team asked Ruto to withdraw from the presidential debate, citing bias by media in the coverage of campaigns.
The DP's team, through Hussein Mohamed, the spokesman of the WSR presidential campaigns, said the debate would be meaningless in a partisan media environment.
"We have noted with much concern the repeated and continued bias and propaganda in a section of Kenya’s mainstream media in abuse of statutory terms of license and violations of constitutional freedoms," he said.
"Under the current partisan media environment, we have advised our candidate against participating in the presidential debate."
Mohammed said political news is a matter of public interest and its coverage, therefore by a journalist, media practitioner or media enterprise, has to be done fairly, accurately and with all sides of the story being reported.
This has been deliberately contravened, ignored and bravely abused by sections of the media, the statement said.
However, the presidential debate is not organised by a particular media house.
Media Owners Association, Media Council of Kenya and Kenya Editors Guild jointly announced that the presidential and deputy presidential debates will take place before the elections.
The institutions said specific dates, the venue and logistics will be announced at a later date.
"It is scheduled to take place in July in consultation with political parties ahead of the August 9, 2022. Also, a team of senior editors from across media houses has been put in place to secure the interests of Kenyans and to deliver fairness to all concerned," they said in a joint statement.
During the debate, a live audience representing the various sectors of society will be present. The public will have a platform to send in their questions as well.
During the debate, the contenders are expected to sell their agendas and what is in store for Kenyans.
Edited by A.N
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