Why The Standard is paying the price for speaking the truth

Today, on World Press Freedom Day, we celebrate the indispensable role of a free press in any functioning democracy. But in Kenya, as in many parts of the world, that freedom is not simply given; it is defended, daily and often, it’s at great cost.

Across Kenya, the media industry is haemorrhaging. The Media Council of Kenya reports that 90 per cent of outlets are unable to pay salaries, with some struggling even to cover electricity bills. At least eight media houses have been forced to close permanently or temporarily since 2024 due to financial distress. More than 2,000 journalists have lost their jobs in the past five years, according to the MCK, as print revenues collapse and advertising shifts uncontrollably to digital platforms. We are conforming, adapting and coming to terms with the new reality.

At The Standard Group, we have seen monumental changes in the media landscape for over a century and stayed the course. We have exposed corruption, held the powerful to account, and given voice to the voiceless. We speak truth to power not because it is easy, but because it is our constitutional and moral duty.

In today's political environment, truth-telling has become expensive. The government currently owes The Standard Group Sh1.2 billion in pending advertising bills. This is a debt that has accumulated despite repeated promises of settlement over the years. This is not merely a commercial dispute but a systematic attack on freedom of the press. When the state withholds legitimate payments from media houses, it crosses the line from financial management into the league of coercion. Unpaid bills are quiet threats from the government to the media. They are the state's low whispers to every editor: “Don't criticise us. Don't publish the truth. Don't hold us accountable. Tread carefully.”

Make no mistake, journalism is not charity. It requires resources, infrastructure, and the courage to publish without fear or favour. But when the government becomes a debtor that deliberately refuses to pay, it systematically weakens the very institutions that are constitutionally mandated to hold it accountable. A media house starved of revenue is a media house compromised. That is not democracy; that is slow strangulation, starving the media of air, hoping it dies.

And although ours is not an isolated struggle, we feel especially targeted. Strangely, even independent committees of Parliament have joined the shameless efforts to throttle the independent press. On April 2, the Sam Atandi-led Budget and Appropriations Committee removed Sh866.4 million from planned payments to the media. Sh228 million of that was to come to Standard Group. Civil Servants at the Treasury and the Ministry of Information had certified those payments urgent, overdue and necessary. The Committee, at the instigation of a man who rose to MP position through the media as a cartoonist, John KJ Kiarie, removed media payments for no justifiable reason and, in fact, raised the budget higher for non-essential spending. The role of government anywhere is to do no harm. Yet the Executive commits national harm under the willing oversight of a lapdog Legislature. Only the media and the Judiciary are left to save Kenyans left at the mercy of a goon-fronted system - and the Standard stands at the forefront of that pushback. Our predicament is not a crisis; it is a slow, deliberate strangulation. And if the state succeeds, Kenyans will be left not with a free press, but with subservience dressed as satisfaction. Remember, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

We reject any attempt, whether through delayed payments, one-sided attacks from weaponised regulators, opaque advertising contract awards or intimidation, to silence independent voices. The Standard has survived political repression, economic boycotts, and even physical attacks on our staff and property. We will survive this, too, but we should not have to. The government needs to do the right thing.

Today, we call on the government to respect the rule of law, pay what is owed, and recognise that a free press is not an adversary of the state, but its most honest partner. We do not seek favours, we seek fairness. We do not demand applause; we demand our rights under Article 34 of the Constitution.

On this day, we reaffirm our pledge to you, dear readers, we will continue to speak truth, shine light, and hold power accountable, whether the bills are paid or not. But the state must know that every shilling withheld is a stain on its commitment to democracy.

The truth has a price. At the Standard Group, we have paid it for 124 years. We are not about to stop now. We dare to stand alone!

The writer is the GCEO, Standard Group PLC