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#TheProfiteers: Outrage after KTN fails to air exposé on South Sudan plunder


Kenyans online are protesting KTN’s last minute cancellation of the airing of an investigative piece on South Sudan leaders’ alleged looting and stashing their wealth in Nairobi and Kampala.

The TV station had run promotional posts ahead of Sunday’s scheduled airing only to announce a postponement with no new date.

The exposé was done by John Allan Namu’s Africa Uncensored. It exposed the lavish lifestyles of South Sudanese leaders funded by illegal dealings reportedly transacted through Kenyan banks.

CAUGHT ON TAPE

Namu posed as a Kenyan businessman interested in importing 20 trucks of teak wood from South Sudan. In the process, he captures a government official on tape asking him for a bribe amounting to thousands of US dollars.

The journalist also detailed bank transactions of government officials amounting to thousands of US dollars that were way above their annual pay.

Namu, while announcing the cancellation of The Profiteers, said KTN differed with him on giving an adversely mentioned official an opportunity to respond.

“They were largely happy with the story, but wanted to remove certain parts of it as they sought comment from an adversely mentioned person. We disagreed, given that we had already sought fair comment from this person. So we differ with the decision by @KTNNews to hold the story, but we respect it. They have their platform, and we have ours.

“MACHINATIONS OF ELITE”

“We feel that we have met the threshold for it to be seen by the public, and for the public to judge it on its own merit. I know that this move may mean that fewer people get to see the story. That doesn’t matter to me. What matters is that we are not held back by the machinations of the elite, and their creeping influence in the media,” he wrote.

Online, Kenyans were outraged and called out the media outlet while sharing the YouTube link for users to watch the story.

https://twitter.com/KTNNews/status/1048935868440952832