Nairobi — The United Democratic Alliance Presidential Campaign Secretariat on Friday its candidates will make independent decisions on whether or not to attend presidential debates.
The campaign's spokesperson, former television host Hussein Mohamed, told reporters that the secretariat had provided William Ruto, the presidential candidate, as well as Rigathi Gachagua, his running mate, with sufficient information on the media landscape highlighting the perceived imbalance in media coverage.
"That advice was legitimized by a monitoring report by the Media Council, that showed the other people (our competitor) are enjoying 61 per cent or so of coverage," he stated.
Media survey reveals disparities in election campaign coverage
Mohamed, who was flanked by the campaign's Director General, Josphat Nanok, cited a media survey released by the Media Council of Kenya in June which showed their main competitor Raila Odinga received 58.7 per cent coverage in news media compared to Ruto's 36.6 per cent.
He dismissed a new survey that suggested an improvement saying it lacked legitimacy.
"The media council again a day or two after issued a statement this time however without any report any statistics trying to say the numbers have changed."
"And again, with the obsession of the polls the Media Council goes ahead to even tell us now that they have done a poll, about which campaign journalist would like to cover," he added.
Mohamed went ahead to criticize the Media Council for what he described as shocking statements exposing "media bias" against Ruto's campaign.
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"And again, they said journalists are not comfortable with Kenya Kwanza and they try to quote something that happened during the UDA NDC which was a misunderstanding, yet the same media council complained when my reporters Nyamori of the Standard and Awich of the Star were assaulted at the ODM headquarters," he stated.
Mohamed condemned the Media Council for "losing objectivity" and failing to ensure fair coverage.
He urged the media outlets to provide balanced coverage to all parties.
"We are asking our colleagues and especially media companies and owners, we are not saying you must cover us no, we are saying this is public information and this is public coverage. And if you have decided to give one side coverage, please tell the public what you are doing," Mohamed stated.
The presidential debate is scheduled for July 26 while the running mates debate is set for July 19.
Gachagua has remained noncommittal on his participation in the deputy presidential debate with Ruto giving no indication he will attend the presidential debate on July 26.
