After publicly disparaging a media organization, charging it of supporting the opposition, and calling its journalists “prostitutes” on Wednesday, Kenya’s minister of commerce was in uproar.
The opposition and journalists’ organization demanded a boycott of the minister, Moses Koria, claiming that following these remarks he was unfit to serve the government.
On Sunday, Mr. Koria criticized the Nation Media Group (NMG), one of the biggest media conglomerates in East Africa and a company owned by the Aga Khan, at a public event.
He specifically questioned whether NMG was a media organization “or an opposition party” and threatened to fire any government official who had business with it.
He also referred to the journalists in the group as “prostitutes of the Aga Khan” in a Swahili tweet, saying they had “admitted to being forced by their superiors and management to write anti-government articles as part of a scheme funded by a former president.”
The minister’s tirade, NMG said in response, came after one of its channels, NTV, aired an investigative piece on Sunday concerning a potential import problem within Mr. Koria’s ministry.
The Daily Nation, one of the top newspapers in the nation and a publication owned by NMG, responded in an editorial that Mr. Koria’s “gratuitous verbal attack” is “not only unworthy of a public servant of his calibre, it is also an attack on press freedom, the cornerstone of democracy”.
Attacks on one media outlet “often lead to attacks on press freedom in general,” Edwin Sifuna, a senator from the opposition, noted in a motion of censure against Mr. Koria this week.
Members of the party of opposition leader Raila Odinga left the Senate on Wednesday in protest of Mr. Koria’s entrance and the fact that they were not permitted to question him.
Mr. Koria, who has gained notoriety this week after representing his nation in signing a significant trade agreement with the European Union, told reporters on Wednesday, “I will not apologize.”
The country’s Media Owners Association claimed the minister’s remarks disqualified him from “holding any public office,” while the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) claimed he had become “a symbol of national shame.”
The media has previously been accused of bias towards President William Ruto, who narrowly defeated Mr. Odinga in the presidential race last year.
