“Open threats, money and lust for fame…” Mohammed Ali explains the REAL reason that made him resign from KTN on Valentine’s Day
The former KTN investigative journalist quit his job at KTN to focus on his campaign to be the next MP for Nyali constituency.
Ali’s candidacy has caused a stir as he asked Kenyans to contribute towards his campaign contrary to the tradition in Kenya were politicians dish out cash to the electorates.
But what really motivated Mohammed Ali to quit journalism and seek a career in the dirty game otherwise known as politics?
Ali says he has spent a decade exposing injustice in Kenya in hope that his story would bring change to the oppressed.
“I have spent more than a decade in a fulfilling career as an investigative journalist. Many of you know me not by my name, but by the name of the program that I pioneered, “Jicho Pevu”. Through this program, we have held a light to the ugly side of Kenya, highlighting injustice wherever it occurred, be it through the corruption that brought billions of shillings of cocaine to the shores of our Republic, or the greed that saw people sell the babies of the poor to desperate, barren parents. I have never shrunk from the cause of investigative journalism, and through “Jicho Pevu”, many across the country know that my objectives have been sincere, and for the greater good of a country that I love so much,” Ali wrote in part.
He says his decade long fight against injustice using a pen and a microphone hasn’t yielded any fruit. Ali explained that the government’s open threat to the media made his work difficult.
He further revealed that open threats, money and a lust for fame in some quarters had replaced journalism. The former KTN reporter said media has been over-run by cartels – the reason why he had to quit KTN on Valentine’s Day and start his campaign to fight for injustice within parliament.
“My fellow Kenyans, I have written and talked and investigated, yet the same impunity that I saw on that hot afternoon threatens us still. We live in a time of unparalleled corruption, masked by the largesse of our leaders. We live side by side with ill-gotten wealth of “tenderpreneurs”, who we know have stolen our taxes, but who walk Scott free. In Mombasa, the scourge of drugs is wasting a generation of young men, many of whom I know personally. Yet the purveyors of their poison sit not in jail, but in the comfort of their homes. I have reported on all of these ills, yet I cannot change them. I cannot change them because the profession I love is now over-run by these same cartels. Open threats, money and a lust for fame in some quarters has replaced journalism. The government’s open threats to the media are out for all to see; they create institutions to deny the media revenue. This is why today; I can no longer remain a journalist. My conscience will not allow it.”
“My conscience also doesn’t allow me to give up on Kenya. I cannot and will not. I want to keep on fighting, for this country that I love so dearly. That is why I resigned from my post at KTN on Valentine’s Day, to recommit my love for Kenya, and stand as a parliamentary candidate for the Nyali constituency seat in this year’s general election.”
