Edwin Sifuna Hits Out at Standard Media over Newspaper Headline Targeting Raila Odinga

• ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna believes The Standard newspaper is on a campaign to coerce Raila Odinga out of his political choices
• The newspaper, in its edition for Monday, June 25, featured Raila on its front page with the undertones of a traitor for having chosen to partner with President William Ruto
• Sifuna declared that the effort to negatively brand his leader would be pushed back by the party, which he said still stands on the side of the common citizenry

The Orange Democratic Movement (OD) Party has taken offence at the constant negative profiling of its leader, Raila Odinga, by the Standard newspaper.

The newspaper's latest onslaught on Raila was in its issue for Monday, June 23, on whose front page Raila was featured with the connotation of a traitor dominating the article.

According to the newspaper, the veteran politician betrayed the cause of the young Kenyan population, which had taken to the streets last year to challenge President William Ruto's regime, which was supposedly formulating exploitative tax regimes.

The Standard observed that Raila betrayed the youth by choosing to side with Ruto and birth the broad-based government that saw a host of Raila's key allies joining the national executive in top posts, including Cabinet and Principal Secretaries.

However, the ODM party, through its secretary general Edwin Sifuna, called out the newspaper for what it claimed as a constant "campaign to blackmail, intimidate and force political leaders to take positions that are consistent with that of the ownership and management of the company."

According to Sifuna, The Standard was sensationalising its contents to get back at the ODM leader over his political choices.

"In its latest pursuit of this agenda, the Standard has trained its guns on the leadership of ODM in a bid to force the party to support the political positions of the ownership of the media outlet," Sifuna said.

Sifuna wondered why his boss was being labelled a traitor, yet he took a backseat when the Gen Zs, while taking to the streets, implored him not to intervene as they protested against the tax-filled Finance Bill 2024.

"It is important to put in perspective the events surrounding last year's Gen Z protests, when young Kenyans took to the streets agitating for their rights but specifically demanding the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024. They achieved this while maintaining their position that they were neither aligned with any political formation nor any leader," Sifuna said.

The secretary general, who is also the senator for Nairobi, held that the ODM party, despite the branding by the Standard, was still committed to championing the interests of the common public.

Sifuna said the party had never backed down on demanding accountability from the officers of the state regarding the atrocities perpetrated against the protesters.

Seeming to appreciate the lumping of ODM with the Kenya Kwanza administration owing to the memorandum of understanding the two parties signed in March, Sifuna restated that the Orange party was not part of the current regime in power, explaining that the provisions of the working pact expressly stated the critical issues that needed cooperation, adding that the pact did not amount to the his party joining the government.

"We have stated times without number that ODM is not part of the Kenya Kwanza government.. Whatever stability frameworks we enter into for the sustenance of a peaceful nation and democracy, they do not amount to joining the government. It is, therefore, in really bad taste for the Standard to consistently run this narrative, knowing it is false. The journalistic tenet of truth, honesty and fairness cannot be sacrificed for political points," Sifuna said.

He suggested that Raila was being unfairly targeted and coerced to change his political stance; Sifuna said the ODM boss was at liberty to make political decisions per his judgment.

"We particularly reject what appears to be the undeclared rules that seem to govern the Standard's coverage and treatment of the party's leader, Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, whose sole aim is to distort the public's view of him and to force him into a political direction of the company's ownership," Sifuna said.

Source: TUKO.co.ke