MPs plan fresh assault on media

By Ally Jamah

Kenya: MPs plan a fresh assault on the media this week even as local and international pressure mounts against their unpopular move to gag the press.

Despite the ongoing mass outcry against their bill to impose huge fines or deregister journalists or media houses that don’t toe the official line, MPs plan another set of brutal attacks on the media through proposals to amend the Media Council of Kenya to wield a huge stick against journalists.

Sunday, The African Editors Forum (TAEF) described the anti-media Bill as most disturbing in this age of free press saying it would deal a big blow on Kenya’s credibility.

“We are confident that a president who came in through genuine democracy will not sign such a bill that would truncate democracy and of course freedom of expression. This is a blow to democracy and free speech in Kenya and Africa,” said TAEF chairman Cheriff Sy in a dispatch from Ougadougou, Burkina Faso.

He added: “ TAEF therefore urges President Uhuru Kenyatta to decline to sign the bill into law and not to drag Kenya into the dark ages as the leader under whose watch Kenya slid into the league of nations notorious for inhibiting press freedom.”

 Secretary-General of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions Francis Atwoli said the move to suppress the press was a direct blow against the fight to protect the interests of voiceless Kenyans.

He said that through the press, many societal vices such as corruption and other injustices have been exposed and resolved.

 “Let us not operate retrogressively. This Parliament has young people who should be championing for social justice through the media instead of bringing up laws to muzzle them,” said Atwoli at the Sarova Stanley Hotel in Nairobi.

Planned dialogue

The Chairman of the Council of Governors, Mr Isaac Ruto, has expressed hope that the planned dialogue between the media practitioners and the government would avert unwarranted media oppression.

He termed the bill to stifle the media as unacceptable.

“In the last Parliament we passed a law that allowed media to regulate themselves. I would like to urge Majority Leader (Aden) Duale to go slow on this and not use the numbers of Jubilee Alliance in the House to stifle the media,” said Mr Ruto on the phone.