By KURIAN MUSA

President Uhuru Kenyatta was yesterday lauded for declining to sign into law the Kenya Information and Communication (Amendment) Bill during a dinner event to award journalist for stories on the Kenyan population.

The president was asked to consult widely and help mainstream the media laws in accordance to social justice to enable journalists conduct their business freely without fear.

Patricia Nyaundi of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission said the president acted well since a free media and civil society is the ultimate check on good governance.

Mrs Nyaundi said the media is the most trusted source of information and it is surprising to target them. Nyaundi asaid a vibrant media and civil society are instrumental to ensure leadership is accountable and good governance practiced, she said.

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 “Just as democracy and good governance are good for economic growth, the media and civil society are the catalysts of the process of service delivery to the citizens,” she said.

“Every king is wise and must have in his court that proverbial someone who will tell him that he is naked,” Mrs Nyaundi said in defence against the stringent media rules

Right choices

The organisers of the Kenya Media Population awards said only a few journalists in the country carry out stories on population growth and reproductive health.

KEMEP Chairman Ken Mijungu said the judges were fair in recognising those journalists who went out of their way to file human interest stories and made the right choices of the people they interviewed.

“For all categories in future, we shall only allow journalists to submit articles only in two categories and give chance to others. Only submit your best news features, documentaries for the awards competition,” Mijungu said.

Amongst those who bagged awards were Anne Soi formerly of KTN and now in BBC, Angel Katusia of KTN, and NTV’s Liz Ntonjira who came from her sick bed to receive her award.

The Standard Newspaper’s Gardy Chacha was crowned the Reproductive Health Print Journalist of the Year for his feature story titled “Birds and Bees”.

“Appreciating that woman rights are human rights is one aspect that writers need to take account while doing their stories,” Nyaundi said.