After sustained assaults against the media in the context of the month-long anti-government protests in Kenya, the members of the Fourth Estate Wednesday (July 24) poured into the streets in solidarity to express their anger.
Armed with whistles, vuvuzelas, and a wide array of their tools of trade, the members of the media fraternity sent an unequivocal message to the government that they would not cede any ground in executing their mandate as provided for in Articles 33-35 of the country’s 2010 Constitution.
For good measure, they also invoked the UN Charter, which provides for everyone’s right to freedom of opinion and expression. The right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers
Though President William Ruto’s government has been generally unfriendly to the media since his ascendance to power in August 2022, the crusade has heightened following the onset of the Generation Z protests against bad governance. Physical assaults on journalists have increased and become more brutal.
The most recent and brazen manifestation of the war against the media was the broad daylight abduction of veteran journalist and columnist Macharia Gaitho in Nairobi.
Having outmanoeuvred an earlier abduction attempt on the highway, the avowed consistent critic of the state excesses sought refuge at the nearest police station. To his horror, the abduction squad pursued and caught up with him, forcing him into the vehicle in a manner most humiliating, especially in the full glare of his 18-year-old son.
The officers manning the police station were shut down to meekly let the abductor colleagues accomplish their mission.
Gaitho would be assaulted both physically and verbally while being driven through Nairobi to wherever the security agents deemed fit to interrogate him. In the meantime, his son had shared a recording of his abduction, which was going viral online. He would be set free hours later on the grounds of a mistaken identity.
Days earlier, the police dispersing protestors in Nakuru, about 152km west of Nairobi, had shot a MediaMax reporter, Catherine Wanjeri, despite her conspicuous attire and tools of the trade that distinguished her from protestors. Wanjeri was still lying in hospital and demanding justice, with the authorities turning a deaf ear.
Not on a single occasion of the month-long protests has at least one journalist failed to be the target of the misplaced aggression by the security agents.
On June 25, 2024, there were reports of journalists being barred from covering the bicameral Kenya parliament, ostensibly because of the renovations being undertaken following damage by protestors.
However, the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) dismissed claims that the restriction was borne out of the feeling by the legislators that the media had betrayed them when it mattered.
The legislators had been forced to scamper for safety when protestors stormed parliament after they had passed the controversial Finance 2024 Bill.
Fearing that the situation was getting out of hand, the journalists, under the auspices of the Kenya Media Sector Working Group (KMSWG), called the nationwide demonstrations. One of the points they sought to make clear was that they were united and would not be divided or cave in under government pressure.
The journalists in Nairobi, the epicentre of the demonstrations, presented three petitions to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), to Parliament, and the Information of Communication and Technology ministry.
The petition to the IGP demanded that the security agents respect journalists and allow them to do their work. It also demanded the arrest of the rogue police who have been targeting journalists on duty and compensation for all the journalists’ tools of trade that have been lost or destroyed in the hands of the police.
The petition to parliament demanded that journalists be allowed to work in both the National Assembly and the Senate without undue restrictions, as provided for in the law. They demanded access to the media centre and the press gallery and to conduct interviews in the parliamentary precincts without any impediments.
To the ICT ministry, the journalists demanded the replacement of the Principal Secretary, Prof Edward Kisiang’ani, who most blame for the woes bedevilling the media.
Several policies inimical to the media, including that all state broadcast advertisements be directed to the government-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) outlets, have been effected under the watch of former Kenyatta University don.
The petition told President Ruto to take advantage of the reorganisation of his government to replace Kisiang’ani with someone ready to listen to and work with the media. The journalists signed off with a clear message to the government: Address our concerns or we will be back!
