By D Onyango
The purge at the Nation Media Group has three dimensions. The company is determined to rid the company of reporters and editors who have written boldly and consistently about corruption. That is why Mugumo Munene and Andrew Teyie were sacked on Wensday.
Eleven more reporters will be sacked next week.
In writing and publishing corruption stories the editors and reporters have been labelled Raila Odinga sympathisers.
Then there is a determination to rid the company of history. It turns out that in the run up to 2013 elections NMG bought up to too laptops and assigned reporters to all constituencies to file election results for a parallel independent rallying.
When the IEBC system collapsed NMG said it was going to release its own results based on reports from constituencies by own reporters. It never did and to date the reporters don’t know what the company did with the reports. All the laptops were collected with the data.
Some reporters and editors have questioned whether they were deployed to collect data for State agencies to facilitate rigging. Those reporters and editors are all set to be purged ahead of 2017.
In 1997, senior editors of the Nation Media Group also doubled as media consultants for Kanu in the election of that year. The truth came out in 1998 or thereabouts. The rest as they say, is history.
One of those consultants is back in charge of the company. That scenario may be shaping up at the NMG again. We have to remember that era and the players in it. Something is shaping up again at the company. As Opposition, who are also news makers and consumers, we are watching very closely.
