Citizen TVs Francis Gachiri and NTV cameraperson were on Tuesday attacked at Wiper party headquarters. [Photo|Newstrend.co.ke]
Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju has accused NASA coalition of being fond of assaulting and intimidating journalists working in Kisumu, Homabay and Kakamega counties.
The claim came just a few hours after the attack on NTV and Citizen TV journalists by rowdy youth while covering a press conference by NASA at Wiper party offices in Nairobi on Tuesday when the country was set for a critical address.
The Jubilee party leader during an interview on KTN News on Tuesday night said he was delighted that the incident occurred in broad daylight for everyone to see saying the opposition’s manners had been exposed to the public.
“Several journalists in Kisumu, Kakamega and Homabay tell me that they are so intimidated by NASA such you’d dare not write a story or file a report that is critical to the; the ODM formation. You’d be bludgeoned and this has happened before and they cannot report to the police,” said Tuju.
He described the youth who roughed up the journalists as militia who have a command of operation and moved to hit on the media council of Kenya as being timid. He said in his view the council had not even condemned the incident but instead nearly thanked NASA leaders.
“The media are so scared by how NASA operates. Media house owners do not want to have a confrontation with NASA, they tried it with reporting on the voter turnout and their journalist was being beaten but they went ahead and covered them,” claimed Tuju.
He said he has no hope that any legal action would be taken on the perpetrators as he could not see the reporters who fell victim to the incident as daring enough to take up the matter with the authorities.