World Press Freedom Day? Not Yet Uhuru For Muranga Scribes

Today is the World Press Freedom day,  a day when members of the Fourth estate celebrate the milestones achieved towards the free flow of information to members of the public.
However,  in Murang'a, journalists have increasingly found themselves working under undue pressure, with some of them risking losing their jobs as they struggle to cover political events at the heights of campaigns.
Many of the journalists have reported receiving threats of being fired if they do not affiliate themselves with certain politicians.
A certain senior politician in the county has been making frantic calls to media houses headquarters in Nairobi demanding for the replacement of local reporters for failing to support him.
Journalists have had to plead their cases to their bosses to avoid facing the sack or being deployed to far-flung counties.
In desperation,  the political leader has run to media owners in a bid to influence how stories are aired while attempting to have the reporters punished for not dancing to his tunes.
A local reporter has told KK Online that he received calls from prominent people from his organisation just before the nominations telling him that the politician had accused him of being biased.
Faced with the allegations, the journo was forced to frantically explain to his bosses that the claims were untrue and that the leader was just being malicious.
Another reporter was to be transferred to another county under the command of the same leader but the transfer was thwarted after frantic pleas by the reporter.
Almost all local journalists have had a nasty experience with the leader.
But as we celebrate this day,  our wish is to have a conducive environment to ensure we effectively deliver on our role as the watchdogs.