Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen has accused Citizen TV of being sponsored to attack embattled Jubilee party candidate in the Kibra parliamentary by-election McDonald Mariga.
During the News Gang segment on Thursday night, Citizen's senior journalists; Linus Kaikai, Joe Ageyo, Francis Gachuri, Yvonne Okwara and Jamila Mohammed tore Mariga into part and labeled him as a 'project' of a certain Jubilee party faction.
Murkomen expressed his disappointment that the journalists launched an attack on Mariga a few hours to the hearing of his appeal by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Disputes Resolution Tribunal on Friday.
The former Kenyan international footballer is contesting a decision to disqualify him from the Kibra race on allegations he was not on the voters' register.
"It’s appalling that Ageyo, Gachuri, Kaikai, Okwara and Mohamed agreed to discredit ferociously the case of Mariga before IEBC the night before the hearing. Never seen something like this from Citizen TV before. Must be sponsored to influence the case," Murkomen tweeted.
The Elgeyo-Marakwet senator also took issue with the journalists after they criticised the aspirant for being 'chaotic and disorganized' judging by the posts on his Twitter account.
Murkomen defended Mariga saying the Twitter handle (@McDonald_Mariga) which the 'News Gang' team referred to was fake and noted the soccer star's official account was @MarigaOfficial.
"It’s an indictment on the part of my friends Ageyo, Gachuri, Kaikai, Okwara to viscously attack Mariga because of tweets from fake account. One would think that they would do some basic verification on the authenticity of the twitter account before going on air," the Senator posted.
During the show, Kaikai faulted Mariga's move to join politics saying he indicisive, helpless and looked like someone's 'project'.
"It comes out as really untidy for Mariga that this is how he wants to enter politics; it’s looking very chaotic and disorganized on his part," he said.
"Mariga looks like a project, entirely at the mercy of other people; he doesn’t know what to do, he has to be led," he added.
His colleagues also poured cold water on the footballer's ambition to succeed the late Ken Okoth, the immediate Kibra MP.
"It’s beyond doubt that Mariga may not necessarily be the Jubilee candidate, he is a candidate of one faction of the Jubilee party," Gachuri said.