Africa-Press – Kenya. The debate surrounding alleged attacks on the media has continued with the opposition voicing its concerns. In a statement, National Assembly minority leader Opiyo Wandayi has taken issue with what he has termed as emerging threats from particular elected leaders, executive and key state agencies.
Wandayi has cited the recent alleged raid said to have taken place at the residence of former Interior cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i in which he has claimed media houses were forced to provide evidence.
“Azimio la Umoja is deeply disturbed by the emerging trend of both direct and disguised threats to journalists and media freedom in the country,” reads the statement. According to Wandayi, President William Ruto’s administration wants to be allowed to act in complete darkness.
” That warped and twisted logic was not meant to aid the investigations in any way but to cover it up and ensure journalists do not delve into such reporting going forward,” he states.
The threats, the Ugunja MP says, are part of a wider plan being staged to curtail the media from shining the lights on the actions of the State and its support cast.
“The government wants to be allowed to act in darkness so that it can solidify impunity, corruption and dictatorship,” the letter further reads.
The legislator claimed he is aware some journalists and media houses have been threatened against reporting on the current drought and famine in some parts of the country.
He has, however, called on journalists to remain firm and not to be cowed by the threats. “We also ask all Kenyans to view threats to journalists and media as a whole are threats to our struggling democracy,” Wandayi states.
Senate majority leader Aaron Cheruiyot recently kicked off a storm alleging that media and banking sectors are run by cartels who work to protect one another. He said the two industries would prove difficult for President William Ruto to tame.
“President William Samoei Ruto will succeed in crushing every cartel in the country save for two that are extremely powerful. 1. KE Banks 2. KE Media both are very powerful, influential and synergise so well to protect each other’s interests. For the public good, a way must be found,” he said.
The statement has since elicited mixed reactions from various quarters. The Editors Guild has condemned it terming sentiments as a threat to media freedom.
“It is dumbfounding that the Senator sees the media as a cartel rather than a catalyst of Kenya’s democratic discourse without which, many politicians of his ilk would never have emerged to become anything worth quoting,” Kenya Editors Guild president Churchill Otieno said.
Digital strategist Dennis Itumbi, however, defended the Cheruiyot saying all he did was just give feedback to journalism and that the newsroom needs people like him.
“Well said. Yours is feedback to journalism, I do not see how that is a threat to democracy. Keep going – Majority Leader. Newsrooms need your kind of take,” Itumbi tweeted.
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