ODM Party leader Raila Odinga National Executive Retreat in Kajiado on Friday. Photo: ODM Party X.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has condemned The Standard newspaper over its today’s headline, “Betrayers of Gen Zs”, which they termed as a continued campaign of misinformation against the party’s leader Raila Odinga.
In a statement released and signed by the Secretary General Edwin Sifuna, the party stated that it has been watching the paper running campaigns to intimidate and blackmail Odinga, disregarding the journalistic standard and embracing propaganda. According to ODM, the move by Standard is to make political leaders choose positions that align with them.
“For sometime now, the Standard Media Group has run a campaign to blackmail, intimidate and force political leaders to take positions that are consistent with that of the ownership and management of the company. The Standard is pursuing a propaganda campaign disguised as journalism,” Sifuna stated.
Additionally, they faulted the media house for recently targeting the leadership of the party. In regard to today’s headline,” Betrayers of Gen Zs”, the party explained that the Gen Z protests was not aligned to any political movement as they claimed, as well as the party maintaining its firm position that the government must compensate all the affected families from the protests.
According to Sifuna their position remains standing, including the party’s demand on police brutality and abductions. He further reinforced that ODM is not in government and the framework to bring stability to the country does not mean they joined government.
“We have stated times without number, that ODM is not party of the Kenya Kwanza government. Whatever stability frameworks we enter into for sustenance of a peaceful nation and democracy, do not amount to joining government. It is therefore in real bad taste for the Standard to consistently run this narrative knowing it is false,” he explained.
He noted that the party’s leadership will not be intimidated by their propaganda, and the move by the standard to destroy Odinga’s image before the members of the public and force him into aligning with the political direction of the company.
He urged Kenyans planning to mark one year anniversary of the Gen Z protests to uphold peace and ignore the misleading information he said wants to divide them.
“The Party has for a long time been advocate and practitioner of peaceful protests and change, and we urge all those who will turn out to commemorate the anniversary this Wednesday, fearlessly stand on the side of freedom and democracy, and the right to protest as enshrined in the constitution,” Sifuna concluded.
