Rarieda Member of Parliament and renowned legal scholar Otiende Omollo has called on the media not to defend journalists who misreport facts.
Speaking on NTV on Tuesday in a wide-ranging panel discussion, the first time legislator said that journalists who engage in the vice of misreporting should be held accountable.
"It is not right for any media house to defend any reporter who misreports. It's actually in your interest to tell the reporter to bring the clip, bring somebody who can translate Luo, let's see where he said it...," the MP said.
Otiende Omollo's intervention comes in the context of a controversy touched off by a Nation newspaper headline that claimed Raila would run for the presidency in 2022.
The veteran opposition and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader rubbished the headline, in a statement through his spokesman Dennis Onyango, and called for the paper to retract it with an apology.
Otiende warned media houses that by entertaining journalists who engage in misreporting expose themselves to legal suits.
Regulations governing the conduct of journalists call on them to observe the canon of accuracy.
In case of a violation of that canon, the media house involved in the violation is required to issue an apology.