Media coverage tone

Parliament Pulse

The tone of mainstream media coverage of Parliament, tracked from a fixed allowlist of Kenyan outlets — see exactly how it works.

This is a media-coverage tone tracker, not an opinion poll. It measures how allowlisted Kenyan newsrooms covered Parliament, as read by an AI classifier with human review — it says nothing about what Kenyans as a whole think or approve of. No figure is shown from fewer than 5 reviewed items, and every figure traces back to the listed items below. See the methodology for the full pipeline and its limits.

Bills currently before Parliament

What the National Assembly is working on — for each Bill: its current stage, how media is covering it, and what citizens have submitted. These are three separate readings, never blended into one score.
Parliamentary activity as of the last recorded order paper (sitting): 13 Aug 2026 — this can lag by a few weeks, and Parliament may be in recess.

Coverage-tone context

Everything below measures the tone of media coverage of Parliament across all topics — background context for the Bills above. It is not public opinion and not a poll.

What’s moving this week

Topics ranked by current coverage volume × how far their tone moved against the trailing four-bucket baseline (weekly buckets where the week has 5+ reviewed items, else monthly). A topic only ranks when both windows clear 5 items.

Devolution ↑ 0.13 n = 34 items this month · baseline -0.37 (n = 56)
Education ↑ 0.22 n = 16 items this month · baseline -0.30 (n = 33)
Economy & Taxation ↓ -0.67 n = 5 items this week · baseline 0.11 (n = 10)
Corruption & Accountability ↑ 0.25 n = 12 items this month · baseline -0.50 (n = 18)
Security ↓ -0.27 n = 6 items this week · baseline -0.16 (n = 21)
35Items analysed (n)
29%Positive (10 of 35)
0%Neutral (0 of 35)
71%Negative (25 of 35)

Coverage Tone Over Time

Monthly sample sizes: 2026-07 (n = 14) · 2026-08 (n = 16). Months with fewer than 5 reviewed items are not plotted.

29% 71%
↓ Download CSV
Coverage tone by topic — show the data table

A single item can mention several topics, so these mentions sum to more than the 35 items analysed. Topics under 5 mentions show no average.

TopicMentions (n)Average tone
Devolution 90 -0.32 (n = 90)
Governance & Constitution 74 -0.20 (n = 74)
Security 55 -0.39 (n = 55)
Education 49 -0.23 (n = 49)
Economy & Taxation 39 -0.29 (n = 39)
Healthcare 35 -0.27 (n = 35)
Corruption & Accountability 30 -0.41 (n = 30)
Agriculture 9 0.21 (n = 9)

By Source

SourceItems (n)Average tone
The Standard216 -0.26 (n = 216)
Nation5 -0.47 (n = 5)
The Star1 too few (n = 1)

Recent Items

Every figure on this page is built from items like these — each linked to its source.

'He arrived dead'; Bliss Hospital tells court in Rex Masai inquest
Negative · The Standard · 2 Sep 2026 · read
Activist sues Parliament over MPs' voting records, demands transparency
Negative · The Standard · 31 Aug 2026 · read
Probe procurement process of Sh2.8 billion police uniform
Negative · The Standard · 31 Aug 2026 · read
Time to rethink Negotiated Democracy in northern Kenya
Negative · The Standard · 31 Aug 2026 · read
16 years of devolution health docket report gains, marred by persistent strikes and staffing issues
Negative · The Standard · 29 Aug 2026 · read
The 2027 election may be months away, but Treasury is already spending for it
Negative · The Standard · 25 Aug 2026 · read
Architecture of patronage and political rewards is holding Kenya hostage
Negative · The Standard · 25 Aug 2026 · read
PNU backs Matiang'i as Munya challenges Ruto's hold on Meru
Positive · The Standard · 22 Aug 2026 · read
Inadequate funding to blame for healthcare crisis, unions say
Negative · The Standard · 21 Aug 2026 · read
Concerns raised over learners travelling to school before dawn
Negative · The Standard · 19 Aug 2026 · read
Nyoro receives a heroic welcome in Kiharu as he outlines the opposition agenda
Positive · The Standard · 19 Aug 2026 · read
'That was not healthcare, it was theft'- Ruto on old health system
Positive · The Standard · 18 Aug 2026 · read
Mau Mau veterans welcome village elders recognition, push for historical justice
Positive · The Standard · 9 Aug 2026 · read
Gatundu South MP condemns selective arrests, warns of political fallout
Positive · The Standard · 4 Aug 2026 · read
Ruto says village elders to get Sh3,000 monthly stipend
Positive · The Standard · 4 Aug 2026 · read
Sale of illegal pesticides persists despite crackdown, Auditor General says
Negative · The Standard · 3 Aug 2026 · read
Ol Kalou outcome shows voters can prevail against disruptive gov't forces
Negative · The Standard · 1 Aug 2026 · read
Kindiki: I will be Ruto's running mate in 2027
Positive · The Standard · 27 Jul 2026 · read
Matiang'i warns of armed goons as 2027 campaigns loom
Negative · The Standard · 25 Jul 2026 · read
The rise and fall of Ruto's plan to save universities
Negative · The Standard · 25 Jul 2026 · read

How This Is Measured

This page tracks the tone of media coverage — it is NOT a statistical opinion poll and never measures public opinion or approval. The pipeline: articles from a fixed allowlist of Kenyan outlets (Nation, The Standard, The Star, People Daily, Citizen Digital, NTV, K24, KTN News, KBC and Business Daily) are ingested every few hours; a classifier first scores each item’s relevance to the Parliament of Kenya, and items below the relevance floor are rejected outright.

Surviving items are classified positive / neutral / negative (with a −1.0 to +1.0 score) by an AI language model; confident calls publish, borderline ones wait in a human review queue. Items are then linked to the members and Bills they name, with uncertain links held for editor review. No average is shown from fewer than 5 reviewed items, every average is printed with its sample size, and every figure traces to the listed items with source, link and date. Full details: methodology.