African Trade Ministers Meeting: Kuria Attacks On Media Justified
The Mt Kenya Times 
Trade and Investment Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- He once again proved wrong his critics who had been alleging he never understood matters of diplomacy and hence he was unfit to hold that office.
- I want to say this. In the history of this country, I have never heard a Minister of Trade having convened a high profile meeting of this magnitude.
- This would only happen if the President was directly involved in the preparations.
- I’m sure CS Kuria has briefed President William Ruto accordingly on areas of the conversation and invited him to open a two-day meeting.
- Why hosting AfCFTA meeting in Nairobi is not a walk in the park?
The Mount Kenya Times ePAPER yesterday published a front page lead story bearing the headline ‘Kenya to Host 54 Trade Ministers Meeting’.
When I read this story, my expectation was that it would equally be given a big coverage by other media houses.
But this was not the case. This story never featured and if it did it was mentioned in passing or in a brief.
Notably, convincing 54 African ministers to fly to Nairobi was not a small task.
Equally, it was not easy to convince the Secretary General of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to have the meeting be held in Nairobi.
Here, the credit goes to our Trade and Investment Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria. He used his skills of diplomacy, negotiations and persuasions while showcasing Nairobi as the business hub destination in Africa.
He once again proved wrong his critics who had been alleging he never understood matters of diplomacy and hence he was unfit to hold that office.
I want to say this. In the history of this country, I have never heard a Minister of Trade having convened a high profile meeting of this magnitude.
This would only happen if the President was directly involved in the preparations.
I’m sure CS Kuria has briefed President William Ruto accordingly on areas of the conversation and invited him to open a two-day meeting.
Why hosting AfCFTA meeting in Nairobi is not a walk in the park?
The main reason is envy. The Trade Ministers and their respective governments knew that Kenya will gain a lot.
First, the hospitality industry will reap big as the Kenyan hotels will offer them and thier delegations full accommodation at thier own cost.
Secondly, the Kenyan business people and industrialists will have an opportunity to interact with them freely.
This will help to create new linkages and partnership. This will pave the way for new opportunities for Kenyan enterpreneurs to expand the scope of thier businesses beyond the border.
Given this scenerio, this was a big story but the mainstream print media opted to give it a wide berth for obvious reasons.
It is worth to note the preparations for this meeting coincided with a no-hold-barred attacks the CS directed at one of the media house.
At one point, he accused some of the journalists working for this station of having lose morals and operating a gutter press.
Kuria’s anger emanated from story this media house had featured a few days earlier linking him to the alleged edible oil scam.
Appearing before the Senate committee, Kuria defended the government’s decision to award the tender for the importation of cooking oil. The process, he said, met all the requirements of law.
This media house had alleged that the decision was made by the cabinet, myself and Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi. These allegations were far-fetched, malicious and made in bad faith.
All relevant arms of the government including the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) were involved.
Two days later Kuria took this war notch higher, stating. This media house did not have an iota of truth. I challenge them to prove me wrong on this. Let them provide evidence, if they have any.
This station did not respond and many interpreted this as chickening out.
They also averred that this reaffirmed Kuria’s position that this media house was pushing the agenda of Anti-President William Ruto’s political forces, singling out the opposition outfit Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Party.
This started in the countdown to 2022 electioneering period when they were hired to champion the course of the Azimio leader Raila Odinga.
You never believed in Ruto presidency but it is time to accept the bitter truth. He won the election and so as a house media house you have a duty to treat the government of day in a fair and objective manner. If you fail to do so, what else did us expect to do? We will come out to defend ourselves by giving the true picture and calling you out.
By this time, some of the media houses had come out to show solidarity with this station. However, they were cautious. As media houses, we have a duty to interrogate our stories and ensure what we publish is factual and authenticate.
Kuria later asserted. The media freedom is not absolute. There are laws and regulations that govern your work.
So, this media house should choose whether it it want to retrace its footing and remain as a professional body or become peddlers of lies, un-seived and biased stories or a political party.
The media is supposed the steer the course of public interest.
Kenyans stands to reap big from AfCFTA meeting. So, why would the media stoop too low?
I have been listening to the views of a cross section of Kenyans. The media should have looked at the bigger picture.
Put aside the differences with Moses Kuria and do thier solemn duty of informing them about this meeting.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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