Freedom of Press ‘still elusive’ in Kenya

Press freedom in Kenya has remained elusive with new obstacles from within and without the media fraternity, this year’s World Press Freedom Day was told on Tuesday.

The rise of alternative, and largely unregulated, news channels such as social media has also posed new challenges for responsible journalism.

Recent arrests and intimidation of journalists have threatened a return to oppression where the media could do little to bring those in power to account.

But this seemingly grim landscape has not fazed the quest for a free and independent Press, maintains Mr Linus Kaikai, chairman of the Kenya Editors Guild.

Mr Kaikai said on Tuesday the arrest of Nation Parliamentary Editor John Ngirachu in November last year was a sign that all was not well with press freedom in the country.

Police arrested and questioned Mr Ngirachu  alongside Standard Group journalist Alphonce Shiundu and Mr James Mbaka of The Star after the trio published stories questioning the Sh3.8 billion spending by the Interior Ministry.

“Those arrests were unjustified, ill-conceived and illegal,” said Mr Kaikai. “But it offered us a glimpse into the realities of the landscape we are operating in.

“Freedom of the Press remains a journey and not necessarily a destination.”

Seven months before the arrests, GSU officers attacked Nation Media Group journalist Nehemiah Okwembah and Citizen TV cameraman Reuben Ogachi at Bombi near the Agricultural Development Cooperation Kulalu-Galana Ranch.

The two had gone to interview residents who complained that the officers drove away 200 of their cattle for allegedly trespassing into the expansive ranch.

Prof Patrick Lumumba, Director of the Kenya School of Law and the keynote speaker, urged media owners and journalists to prove themselves worthy of the freedom and independence that they were calling for.

“Self-regulation does not mean immunisation from scrutiny,” said Prof Lumumba.

“We must be ready to demonstrate that we are worthy of being allowed to regulate ourselves,” he said.

Prof Lumumba, however, criticised the media for the “deification of political leaders”, which he said had led to attention being shifted from development issues to mere rhetoric.

In his characteristic eloquence, the law don said: “We must demand that the words we report are wedded to actions. Africa has become a place where, when all is said and done, more is said than done.”

In the rest of the continent, the fight for press freedom is far from won, as a new report by Reporters without Borders shows.

More than 100 journalists have fled tiny Burundi to escape repression and danger, a dramatic illustration of the impact of a “deep and disturbing decline in respect for media freedom at both the global and regional levels”, says the report.