CS Kindiki pushes better pay for journalists on World Press Freedom Day

Interior CS Kithure Kindiki addresses the press during a previous event on April 23, 2023. [Interior Ministry]

Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki has promised to work hand in hand with the media and to provide a conducive working environment for journalists.

In a statement to newsrooms on World Press Freedom Day, Kindiki outlined some of the challenges journalists face in efforts to disseminate information to the public including poor pay and the spread of fake news.

Kindiki observed that journalists' work had been threatened by a couple of things including spread of fake news, deliberate disinformation, and clear hate speech.

"Today, you are more likely to land onto made up stories largely on social media and online platforms as opposed to truthful information as was before. This threat attacks the crust of press freedom by turning upside down the media currency thus leaving us with a thin line between facts and fiction, destroys science and promotes conspiracy and negative imagination," said Kindiki.

Further, the Cabinet Secretary highlighted poor payment as one of the major setbacks to journalists since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic.

"It is pretentious of us to expect an independent media and unbiased information from reporters when journalists go for months without pay and others cannot sustain themselves because the pay is too little. Today is my day to call for a review of the payment terms of journalists in our country - ensuring they are given some remuneration commensurate with their day's work and today's cost of living," he said.

The CS has promised to protect journalists and punish those who threaten them in their line of duties.

"Across the country, we have all manner of people carrying cameras, a pen and a notebook and sometimes armed with fake badges trying to penetrate the media space for their own reasons. Sometimes, this has led to cases of extortion as reported in some of our police stations," he said.

"The Media Council of Kenya must safeguard this space by ensuring the upsurge in numbers of people masquerading as journalists," he added.

This year's World Press Freedom Day has the theme "shaping future of rights; freedom of expression as a drive for all other human rights".