President William Ruto has come to the defence of Trade CS Moses Kuria after his attack on the media.
Ruto said that people should defend the rights of the people who call out the media.
"We must defend the free media, we must defend their right to criticise and say whatever they want to say even to write propaganda and say the wrong thing," he said.
"But we must also defend the rights of those who hold the media to account when the media goes rogue, we must defend the rights of people like Moses Kuria to speak their mind the same way we are defending the media to say all the things they want including the wrong ones."
The President said that if the media houses are feeling pain about what others say, they should also feel the same way they write about others.
"I saw one journalist saying that the President should defend us from Moses Kuria, that's fine; I will do my bit, but I want to ask them who is going to defend me from rogue media because I go through hell all the time," Ruto said.
This is after Kuria launched an attack on the Nation Media Group over the weekend following an expose by NTV that touched on the conduct of cabinet secretaries.
The TV station alleged in its report that cabinet secretaries engineered a drop in the prices of edible oils resulting in the loss of taxpayer's money to the tune of about Sh5.6 billion.
Kuria threatened the media organisation using unprintable words and issued a threat to state agencies against running adverts with the media organisation.
Media stakeholders such as the Kenya Editors Guild, Kenya Union of Journalists condemned CS Kuria saying his actions and utterances should promote a positive image of Kenya as a nation.
They also called on President William Ruto to act following the remarks, adding that leaders are the mirrors of society.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission rubbished Kuria’s threats that he will sack any state official who would dare place government adverts with the media organisation.
In a statement, EACC Chief Executive Officer Twalib Mbarak said no public institution or public official should be victimised for engaging in any lawful dealings with any organisation, including in the award of tenders.
On Monday, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua also distanced the government from Kuria's remarks saying the government will allow the media to work freely although they won't hesitate to call it out should it go overboard.