Cord joins NMG in anti-corruption crusade

The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) now seeks to be enjoined in the case pitting the government and the Nation Media Group over the Sh5 billion scandal at the Ministry of Health should it come to a hearing.
The government through the ICT Cabinet Secretary, Joe Mucheru, this week wrote to the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) complaining on the manner in which the Nation Media Group (NMG) covered the story.
In his complaint, the CS accused NMG of skewed reporting and defamation and wants MCK to hold the media house accountable for their coverage which he said portrayed the government as “corrupt, inept and full of thieves”.
The NMG through its Editor-in-Chief, Tom Mshindi, said the company, if it has to, will defend its reporting on questionable spending at the ministry of Health amounting to Sh5.3 billion.
 
However, Cord, says the government is not a private entity that is capable of being defamed.
In a letter written to MCK and signed by the CEO of the Cord Secretariat, Norman Magaya, the opposition coalition said that the Jubilee administration was the most corrupt government in Kenya’s history.
“The Jubilee regime has conceived, bred, and nurtured corruption as its key performance indicators. This is a government that has embalmed corruption as part of its DNA,” the letter reads in part.
They termed CS Mucheru’s complaint as ill-conceived and an attempt to blackmail the media into silence which should be resisted by all patriotic Kenyans.