Interior CS Kithure Kindiki has called on the media owners in the country to pay journalists well.
Kindiki said Kenyan journalists deserve better remuneration commensurate with their day’s work and the country’s high cost of living.
speaking during the world press freedom day ,kindiki pointed out that the media has faced increased disruption from the effects of Covid-19, which ravaged global economies and led to the loss of lives and livelihoods.
This, he said, is a threat to media independence and fuels the spread of unbiased information.
“Today, you are more likely to land onto made-up stories – largely on social media and online platforms – as opposed to truthful information as it was before,” he added.
He noted that thousands of journalists go out of their way to speak about issues affecting other people daily but lack even basic human provisions because of poor pay and ‘uncaring media sector actors who find this normal.’
“Just as was the message the other day on International Labour Day, it is pretentious of us to expect independent media and unbiased information from reporters when journalists go for months without pay and others cannot sustain themselves because the pay is too little,” Kindiki said.
He further expressed concern over the rise of “quacks” and called on the media to conduct thorough self-regulation and accreditation to crackdown on individuals masquerading as journalists.
The Interior CS stated that the security agencies in the country will work with media players to help protect the freedom and integrity of the media.
“We will work with all media players to ensure the current media space is not only protected but also expanded systematically in order to eliminate opaqueness in the security sector that more often than not leads to misinformation and speculation,” Kindiki said.