HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1102803,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1102803/?format=api",
"text_counter": 63,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Lusaka",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": "himself, at the point at which the Speaker was trying to establish the location of the Senator before giving him an opportunity to seek the Statement. Sen. Kang’ata stated that there was in circulation a version of the recording that had been manipulated to introduce a voice-over, in which an unknown person is heard stating that Sen. Kang’ata was at ‘Sabina Joy,’ a bar in Nairobi, from where he was attempting to address the Senate. The Hon. Senator complained that the manipulated recording, which had been circulated in various social media platforms, and was calculated to malign him and cast him in bad light in the eyes of the public. Sen. Kang’ata claimed that the complained of recording had also been aired and reported as news by four mainstream media houses; namely, Citizen TV Digital, the Star Online Digital, K24 TV and Kameme TV, thereby giving it undeserved legitimacy. This, the Senator alleged, to be a contravention of Rules 5 (3), 6(2) and (3) of the First Schedule to the Standing Orders on broadcasting rules. Hon. Senators, a number of Senators rose in support of Sen. Kang’ata’s Point of Order. They included the Senator for Kitui County, Sen. Enoch Wambua, MP, the Senator for Bungoma County, Sen. Moses Wetangula, MP, the Senator for Makueni County, Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr., MP, the Senator for Wajir County, Sen. (Dr.) Abdullahi Ali, MP, the Senator for Kericho County, Sen. Aaron Cheruiyot, MP, and the Senator for Taita-Taveta County, Sen. Johnes Mwaruma, MP. The Senator of Kitui County observed that professional ethics on the part of the media houses required that they verify any information received, to ascertain its accuracy and authenticity, before publishing it as a news item. The Senator further observed that the dignity of the Senate had been undermined and the Senate brought into disrepute on account of the publication of this false recording as a news item by the media houses. The Senator for Bungoma County, pointed out that a number of Senators who were in the House on the material day saw Sen. Kang’ata as having been in a moving vehicle, and that he shortly thereafter walked into the Chamber and subsequently prosecuted the Statement, which he had earlier attempted while on the Zoom platform. The Senator of Bungoma also stated that those in the Chamber did not hear anyone call out “Sabina Joy” when Sen. Kang’ata was on the online platform. He called for the media houses to apologize to the Senator of Murang’a County, the Speaker of the Senate and the Senate. The Senator of Makueni County called for the correct video recording to be released to the media houses by the Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit (PBU), in order to curtail further circulation of the offending recording. Hon. Senators, that being the first time the matter was being brought to my attention, I undertook to make a ruling on the matter today. The sum of the question on which I was called upon to rule was whether the recording in question and the manner in which it was carried by the media houses amounted to a violation of the Standing Orders, and if so, what action was appropriate to be taken by the Senate against the offending media houses."
}