Deputy President Dr William Ruto (pictured in red trousers), Sunday, put Kenyan mainstream media on their defense literally tearing their headline stories as “sponsored nonsense”.
Dr Ruto in an early morning tweet said that the office of the DP does not procure for any entity and asked which other offices the scammers may have visited other than the 23 minutes they spent at his Harambee House Annex building.
“Office of the Deputy President does not procure for any ministry/department. Question: other than 23 minutes in Annex, for months, which government offices involved in the ‘tender’ did the scammers visit? Did they access Department of Defense? Who facilitated? Who did they meet? Get the truth. Forget the sponsored nonsense media”, he tweeted to an avalanche of mixed reactions.
“Hard questions as Ruto speaks on arms racket”, read ‘Sunday Nation’ while ‘Sunday Standard’ top story read “DCI raid Ruto office” adding that top DP aides Ken Osinde, Reuben Maiyo and Farouk Kibet are lined up for grilling – and that they could easily lose their jobs as the the DP was “considering reshuffling his team in the wake of the scandal that has put his office in spotlight”.
It remains to be seen what DP intelligence is about the scandal that centrally features former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa. If not a diversionary tactic, the DP tweet appears to suggest that the scammers may have also met with top officials at the DoD and possibly some top officials at the Office of the President.
Whichever way the scam goes, one thing is clear: the mainstream media has a homework to clear their names of not running “sponsored nonsense” against the Deputy President DP Dr Ruto.