MEDIA-KENYA: Culture of Intimidation Resurfaces

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Oct 2 2003 (IPS) - Mitch Odero, a veteran Kenyan journalist, remembers vividly how he used to be locked up behind bars for publishing investigative reports which exposed the government.

As an editor of one of the local daily newspapers in 1994, he was continuously picked up by police, harassed and tortured for trying to "malign" the KANU government.

KANU, the Kenya African National Union, ruled the East African country from 1963 to 2002.

"I became a frequent visitor of the cells because of making the public aware of what their leaders were doing. This was meant to instil fear in journalists and kill investigative reporting," he told IPS this week.

To the horror of journalists, this culture has not died. It is still being practiced by the new government, the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), which swept to power, on the back of granting Kenyans freedom, last December.

The latest round of intimidation by the government manifested itself Sep. 29 when three journalists were arrested for publishing, what the government termed, an alarming story on Sep 28. The trio, Tom Mshindi, David Makali and Kwamchetsi Makokha, who are under pressure to disclose their sources, are editors at the East African Standard, one of Kenya’s most popular independent newspapers. They were arrested for publishing confessions of suspects involved in the murder of Crispin Mbai, a university don. Mbai, who was murdered on Sep. 14, was, at the time of his death, chairperson of a committee to review Kenya’s constitution. Two of the editors, Mshindi and Kwamchetsi, were released Sep. 30. Makali, who appeared in court on Oct 1, has been charged with theft of a police video, and freed with a bond of Ksh 5,000 (64 U.S. dollars), according to the paper’s crimes reporter, Dominic Wabala. The so-called offending story had excerpts of a police report that contained verbatim declarations of Mbai’s killers. National security minister, Chris Murungaru issued a strong-worded statement describing publication of the confessions as "gross breach of the law". He warned that the media is not above the law. Local and international rights groups, media fraternity and politicians have condemned the arrest of the journalists. According to the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), the arrest aims to deny the press its freedom and cover up incompetent elements in the police force. "This is not only an affront to the principle of media freedom, but a cunning attempt to divert public attention from the ineptitude among some elements in the police force," says KHRC Programme Officer, Peter Kiama. Media watchdogs say they fear that Kenya is reverting to the old repressive days when the media could not raise a voice. "These actions confirm the emerging trend where the government is slowly but surely returning the country to the old days of repression and dismantling of printing presses," remarks Ezekiel Mutua, Secretary General of the Kenya Union of Journalists. Odero, Honorary Executive Director of the Media Council of Kenya, says "the government is taking us back to authoritarian era which we buried on 27 Dec. 2002 following free and fair elections." Odero, who is also chairperson of the Kenya Chapter of Eastern Africa Media Institute, says the government is seeking to curb freedom of expression. "Any restriction to access information by the press amounts to restricting freedom of the press," he adds. In the past years, there have been moves aimed at curtailing media freedom in Kenya. Last year, parliament passed a bill to deal with what they termed as "irresponsible journalism". The Miscellaneous Amendment Bill is a revision to the Books, Magazines and Newspapers Act. It raises the bond on newspaper publishers from 10,000 (128 U.S. dollars) to Ksh one million (12,821 U.S. dollars) during registration. It also makes it an offence for a vendor or distributor to sell a publication, which has not met this requirement. Critics said the bill sought to curb press freedom, since the high publishing bond would discourage growth of local press, and subject vendors to harassment over contents of publications they sold. It is not only Kenya which is tightening the screw on the independent media, but Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, the Gambia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan are also harassing and detaining their journalists.