Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen has gone to the social media to allege that the Daily Nation newspaper was paid to purport that the textile technologist and manufacturer Jaswinder Bedi is the West Kenya Sugar Company chairman Jaswant Rai in a bid to entangle the Deputy President in the sugar importation scandal.
In a tweet on Sunday, the majority leader is convinced that someone must have paid the mainstream newspaper to make the headline “Sweet secrets” with the photo of DP Ruto and Jaswinder Bedi captioned as Jaswant Rai.
In the newspaper screenshot posted by the senator, the caption describes the photo as having been taken during the wedding of Rai’s son Tajveer. However, according to the senator, the man in the photo is not Jaswant Rai suggesting that the photo might not have been taken at Rai’s son’s wedding. The senator then goes ahead to ask who paid the piper to suggest that actually someone must have been bribed.
This comes after the senator claimed that the president’s order for a lifestyle audit to be performed on all government officials including himself and DP Ruto was an investigation and not an ordinary lifestyle audit as it was put.
The implication leaves the media house’s credibility under great challenge as it has not been the first time the newspaper has been associated with fake news. On February 7, a man placed the death announcement of prominent businessman Jimmy Wanjigi on the Daily Nation.
Although an apology was sent to the businessman and his friends and family, it really left the media house in such an awkward position with the questions of how the man was able to maneuver and make the post.