The Nation Media Group today had a first-hand taste of the vicious corruption cartels in government who will go to any lengths to cover their tracks.
When Business Daily editors sent the newspaper to bed last evening, they knew they had a juicy story on the cover that would touch off another corruption storm in government – and possibly not only have big heads rolling but also earn the media house bragging rights.
The newspaper’s journalist Stellar Murumba had an exclusive story of how Ministry of Health top officials have conspired to steal Ksh5 billion of taxpayers’ money, including funds meant for free maternity healthcare. The figures and schemes involved make the architects of the National Youth Service (NYS) Sh800 million scandal look like amateurs.
The Nation management must have increased the print run with expectations of bigger sales in the market. Surprisingly, however, the newspaper had sold out by 6:30am, a very unusual phenomenon even for the juiciest of stories.
Turns out that someone clinically bought all the copies of the Business Daily from nearly all newsstands, vendors and supermarkets before Nairobians arrived to town. But a newspaper vendor tells BT that the cartel’s agent bought the newspapers ‘wholesale’ at Cambrian House, the Nation circulation warehouse, right behind the Nation Centre. This chocked circulation to mainstream readers, except subscribers and Nation employees.
“Some people went around sweeping BD copies off the streets,” said a senior editor at Nation Media Group.
It is suspected that the ‘sweepers’ were agents of the people mentioned in the article, including Health Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri. This was to perhaps water down the impact of the story by reducing its readership in Nairobi. Business Today has leant that other towns were not ‘swept’.
Dr Muraguri had even threatened the journalist investigating the story.
“… you don’t know government,” he told Ms Murumba when she inquired about the story. “We can get what you write even before you publish it, including getting print-shots and screenshots of the story. Someone can be reading your messages while sitting here. If there is a need to hack Nation’s system we can. We can even confirm how much money is in your account now.”
Nation forced to reprint
And true to the PS threat, the ‘government’ sniffed and got to know the story was running in today’s edition – certainly from an insider – and plotted to get agents to buy all the Business Daily newspapers before Nairobians got a chance to read.
In fact, Nation Media Group was forced to reprint the newspaper for fresh distribution in the capital at least to get the story read and avoid a backlash from advertisers.
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The media house was also forced to take precaution, backing up its website just in case the same people tried to hack it and bring it down. For some time around noon, the article was pulled off the BD website, raising questions whether Nation Media Group editors had been forced to remove it. Business Today understands that the decision to pull down the story was “purely internal.”
“It’s back up,” said an editor from Business Daily when Business Today inquired about the missing link. “A decision was made at some point to pull it down as the reprint was being done.”
KUJ’s furious take
The Kenya Union of Journalists was furious, demanding the immediate resignation and prosecution of Health Principal Secretary Dr Nicholas Muragari “for defending wanton corruption at the Ministry and threats to a Business Daily journalist.”
“Thousands of Kenyans die every second due to lack of drugs and medical equipment in our public hospitals, but a public officer who is entrusted with this very significant responsibility of saving lives can afford to defend the loss of Ksh5 billion with threats to the media,” said KUJ secretary General Erick Oduor.
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He was particularly concerned by Dr Muraguri threat that the government will consider hacking into systems of newsrooms, and spy on what journalists are doing. “This is an affront on Chapter Six of our Constitution and we call upon President Uhuru Kenyatta to demand accountability from such public officers who believe that espionage in newsrooms is the only cure to corruption cancer in government ministries,” he said.
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