Kenyan Authorities Restrict Media Coverage At Swearing-In Ceremony Of Opposition Leader

Following a complicated and tense election season in Kenya, according to Human Rights Watch, the government authorities restricted news outlets coverage of the symbolic inauguration of opposition leader Raila Odinga. Media companies first rejected President Uhuru Kenyatta’s instructions to not cover the public event, but the Communications Order of Kenya continued to shut off three television and affiliated radio stations during the ceremony. The media restrictions follow a pattern of government abuse against them and is a violation of both the freedom of information and the freedom of the press.
On January 26, the Kenyan president reportedly held a meeting summoning media editors and managers to his office, threatening to “shut down any media organization that covered the [opposition leaders Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka’s] swearing-in,” according to Human Rights Watch. Although the government has neither confirmed nor denied holding this particular meeting, at least two officials of the Editors Guild of Kenya and the chairman of the Media Owners Association have publicized about attending the meeting. The chairman of the Editors Guild, Linus Kaikai, condemned Kenyatta’s threat, stating that “The media is not an actor in the ongoing contest between Jubilee and NASA over the outcome of the last General Election. The Media remains a mere messenger and a chronicler of any events happening in our country.”
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s first term in office began in 2013 and initiated his troubled relationship with the media. Human Rights Watch reports, “Government officials have intimidated, harassed and threatened media organizations and individual journalists and bloggers writing on sensitive subjects.” New struggles arose during the 2017 election period; a newspaper journalist was arrested in August while covering the opposition demonstrations for allegedly wearing a bulletproof vest without authorization and another journalist was threatened with job termination after releasing a story about a dispute between Kenyatta and his deputy president. Furthermore, numerous attacks on journalists and other media personnel have gone uninvestigated.

On November 20, 2017, the Kenyan president’s re-election was upheld by the Supreme Court, even though an NGO petition challenged the win in October. After the August elections were determined invalid by a court order, they were held again two months later. APA News reported that Uhuru Kenyatta won the October re-election with 98% of the votes, which led to a conflict between the opposition supporters and the police, leaving 37 people dead and over 100 injured. Attorney General Githu Muigai has warned Raila Odinga that personal involvement in the public swearing-in ceremony could be interpreted as treason and he could face the death penalty.

African researcher at Human Rights Watch, Otsieno Namwaya, says that “Kenya is on a very slippery trajectory in regard to human rights…the heightened assault on freedom of the media and expression risks further damaging Kenya’s reputation in the world as a rights-respecting nation.” Any national authority has the primary responsibility of protecting peoples’ rights, which include the right to information, freedom of the press and freedom of expression. In these times when the government and election processes are unstable, the focus must remain on the people. Kenyan authorities must end this “media blockade” and try to maintain their peoples’ and media’s rights.

Jenna Rosenthal

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