ODM leaders vow to amend law
The Government has a responsibility to amend the newly signed Communications Act, Cabinet ministers allied to ODM have said.
Speaking after meeting Media Owners Association representatives on Tuesday, Lands minister James Orengo and Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi vowed to amend the controversial law.
“We’ll be discussing this matter at a full Cabinet meeting ... We have to look at issues that make us appear retrogressive,” Mr Mudavadi said.
Mr Mudavadi defended the media, saying the clause that could be used to prohibit ownership of broadcast and print outlets — crossmedia ownership — was out of touch with technological reality.
In the first vigorous defence of the media by a senior political figure, Mr Mudavadi said the Act made little economic sense.
The two ministers said Parliament had made a mistake by passing the “retrogressive” Bill.
Sailed through
“MPs need to reflect seriously. And this is the time for them to take corrective measures,” the deputy PM said.
“The simple aspect that the law allows a person to open an ordinary citizen’s mail defies common sense,” he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister also faulted the new Act for its lack of a clear timeframe of implementation in the case of ownership of multiple media outlets in both print and electronic domains.
“We have to create a predictable business environment, not laws that send investors scampering away,” he said.
Mr Orengo said the passage of the law was done for reasons that “can’t be reasonably justified in a democratic society.”
“The implementation of such a law is the most ludicrous position that Kenyans can get themselves in,” he said.
He said focus should not be on who was or who was not in the House when the Bill sailed through, but on the “nature and motive” of the Bill.
The Lands minister also criticised Government spokesman Alfred Mutua for “pretending” to speak for the Government.
“We are in Government and we know who that gentleman speaks for. The public and the media should disregard whatever statements he issues, even the advertisements that he has put in the newspapers,” Mr Orengo said.
The ODM leaders vowed to mobilise their fellow MPs to table amendments to the offensive Act.
