Odinga and Financial Times reach a truce

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com  ( email the author)

Posted  Sunday, March 3  2013 at  20:26

In Summary

• “In an article published on March 1, we may have left the incorrect impression, after editing, that Raila Odinga, Kenya’s prime minster, would not respect the result of a free and fair presidential election. We are happy to be able to clarify this point. We are also pleased that the prime minister’s spokesman does not dispute the accuracy of the quotes in the interview,” read the Financial Times statement in an email to theNation from Ms Manson.

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Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the global newspaper, the Financial Times, have reached a truce after it emerged that the quotes used in the controversial story --Odinga warns of trouble if he loses poll—were actually accurate.

Both Mr Odinga and the Financial Times, through its reporter, Ms Katrina Manson, said the matter had now been cleared.

The Financial Times stood by its story and regretted that “after editing, it may have left the incorrect impression” that Mr Odinga “would not respect the result of a free and fair presidential”.

“In an article published on March 1, we may have left the incorrect impression, after editing, that Raila Odinga, Kenya’s prime minster, would not respect the result of a free and fair presidential election.

“We are happy to be able to clarify this point. We are also pleased that the prime minister’s spokesman does not dispute the accuracy of the quotes in the interview,” read the Financial Times statement in an email to the Nation from Ms Manson.

Mr Odinga had on Saturday, through his spokesperson Dennis Onyango and personally when he addressed the rally at the Nyayo Stadium, labelled the story as a “fabrication” and a “complete distortion” of his views.

But on Sunday Mr Odinga said the complaint to the Financial Times had been “ironed out”, and said that no one should be harassed on the basis of his complaint about a specific issue.

“My complaint against a specific report by a specific media house does not constitute a condemnation of the entire foreign media fraternity or even that media house. I wish to remind the people of Kenya that the press, foreign and local, have been one of our key partners in our long quest for change,” Mr Odinga said in a statement issued Sunday afternoon.

He added: “I therefore appeal to Kenyans to give the international and local media the freedom and access that they need to cover this election fairly. The election tomorrow has implications beyond Kenya. The international media are the eyes and the ears of the international community in the exercise."

“Let us grant them the access and information they require to be able to report accurately. Let no one use my complaint about a specific issue, which we have since ironed out, as an excuse to harass the media fraternity, local or foreign,” the PM said in the statement.

The paper which circulates in major international cities in five continents had said that Mr Odinga had “given warning of dire consequences if he is deprived of victory in Monday’s elections – citing a campaign by rivals to intimidate his supporters.”

“If I lose, of course it will be because of blackmail and intimidation,” the paper quoted Mr Odinga as having said in an interview with the Financial Times at his ancestral home in western Kenya.

“I know that they [my rivals] are putting plans in place to try to rig these elections, but I have warned them the consequences may be worse than last time round. The people will not stomach another rigging,” the Financial Times article continued.

The Financial Times statement will be appended to the online story, the Nation learned on Sunday.