By Rodgers Omondi
The DP addresses the media in general without singling out Citizen TV
A video shared on Facebook purporting to show Deputy President (DP) Rigathi Gachagua warning Citizen TV against misreporting is MISSING CONTEXT.
The video, shared online on 12 November 2022, claimed the DP cautioned the media outlet against publishing information that is misleading to Kenyans.
“Deputy President Hon Rigathi Gachagua has warned media houses like Citizen tv to stop misreporting and misleading Kenyans,” the text accompanying the video reads.
The video also includes a banner with the message, “Warning to Citizen TV”.
Above the banner is a screengrab of a tweet by Citizen TV, bearing remarks attributed to Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu on funding of public universities in the country.
We reviewed the entire video and established that Gachagua did not mention Citizen TV anywhere.
In the video, the second-in-command takes issue with the media’s reporting of remarks made by CS Machogu on funding of public universities, but does not single out Citizen TV as alleged.
He argued that the media misquoted Machogu, who, according to the DP, was only explaining challenges facing the education sector, but did not indicate that the government will stop funding university education.
“You people of the media, tafadhali muwachane na sisi [please leave us alone]. Our minister here went to explain the challenges we are having in terms of funding university education, and the way we need to bring everybody on board, including development partners to assist us to fund the university education.
“He gave views of areas we need to continue supporting, then you people went and said that the new CS education has said that the government is not going to support university education, and you know it is not true,” Gachagua said.
The Deputy President urged the media to be objective and seek clarification in cases where a statement may not have been clear to them.
He further noted that education is an important sector and welcomed Kenyans to give their views when called upon by relevant agencies.
We did a search on YouTube and got a video of the same address shared by state broadcaster KBC, and it also did not mention Citizen TV anywhere.
While speaking at Dedan Kimathi University of Science and Technology in Nyeri County on 5 November 2022, Machogu was reported to have said that universities should find ways of generating revenue “because the Exchequer as it is now isn’t going to be able to continue funding more.”
The story was published by several news publications including Citizen Digital, Capital FM, The Star, Nation, and Tuko.
Unlike what has been suggested in the claim, the story was not unique to Citizen TV.
PesaCheck has looked into a video shared on Facebook purporting to show Deputy President (DP) Rigathi Gachagua warning Citizen TV against misreporting and finds it to be MISSING CONTEXT.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
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