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By Liz Anyango
Nairobi, Kenya: With growing concerns surrounding accountability and transparency, the Kenya Editors Guild (KEG) is calling on editors and journalists to intensify their scrutiny of public debt, public financing, and intricate financial structures.
Speaking in Nairobi during the first Peer-to-Peer Engagement on Media Agenda Setting on Complex and High-Risk Public Financing, KEG President Zubeida Kananu said the media must move beyond simply reporting information provided by public institutions and instead demand answers on issues affecting taxpayers.
“We have a responsibility to ask the difficult questions and hold institutions to account,” Kananu said.
The engagement, organised by KEG in partnership with the International Republican Institute (IRI), follows a Media and CSOs Roundtable on Public Debt Accountability and Fiscal Justice held in June.
The June discussions identified several challenges facing journalists covering public debt and government financing, including difficulties accessing reliable information, the technical nature of financing agreements, limited disclosure of loan and guarantee arrangements, and poor coordination among institutions.
“These are not merely technical questions. They are questions of public interest, accountability and democratic oversight,” she said.
Setting the Media Agenda
The peer-to-peer engagement is expected to generate a list of priority issues, evidence and information gaps, key accountability questions and recommendations to guide future engagement with public institutions.
The findings will be consolidated into a Media Issues Paper and a draft media agenda ahead of the first Institutional Dialogue scheduled for September 17, 2026.
Kananu said journalists should approach the institutional dialogue with specific, evidence-based questions drawn from their experiences in newsrooms.
She urged participants to highlight stories they have struggled to pursue and information they have been unable to obtain.
“Bring your newsroom experiences. Bring the stories you have struggled to pursue. Bring the information you have tried and failed to access,” she said.
According to Kananu, the initiative is intended to strengthen investigative and public-interest journalism rather than simply produce another report.
She said the ultimate goal is to equip the media to better interrogate complex public financing, improve reporting and contribute to greater transparency in the management of public resources.
The Nairobi engagement is the first of five peer-to-peer sessions that KEG will hold in partnership with IRI as part of efforts to strengthen media scrutiny of complex and high-risk public financing.
