Kenyan Legislators must work with the media to play oversight role

NAIROBI: The media can now breathe easy after the National Assembly deleted contentious provisions of the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Bill 2014 and moved to amend the proposed law that has generated a lot of heat. The House was not immune to the sustained pressure from the media, civil society and other political leaders — including the President — and ultimately bowed to a sustained campaign to have clause 34 deleted. This clause had made it illegal for journalists to “publish any false or scandalous information against Parliament, its committees or its proceedings”. It proposed jail terms or hefty fines for journalists and media houses it deemed had defamed Members of Parliament in the eyes of the Speaker of the National Assembly.

This is now water under the bridge and Kenyans are now looking forward to the third reading next week when MPs will endorse a reworked Bill after Speaker Justin Muturi announced that it had been amended by legislators. But even as they await the third reading, the public and other stakeholders will be alive to the proclivity of the 11th Parliament to go against the grain and introduce laws that disregard fundamental rights of the media as captured in articles 33, 34 and 35 of the Constitutions that guarantee Freedom of Expression, Freedom of the Media and Freedom of Access to Information.