Nairobi, August 3,
2018--Parliamentarians in Kenya should stop harassing journalists and allow
them to report on the legislature without fear of reprisal, the Committee to
Protect Journalists said today. Dinah Ondari and Anthony Mwangi, journalists
with Kenya's People Daily newspaper, were this week criticized during a parliamentary
session, threatened with being barred from covering parliament, and summoned by a legislative
committee, according to the July 31 Hansard, a verbatim report of
proceedings in parliament, and Ken Bosire, the newspaper's managing editor.
These events followed the publication
in People Daily on July 30 and July 31 of
articles alleging that members of parliament were taking and soliciting bribes
from organizations and individuals they were supposed to be investigating.
The People Daily newspaper is privately owned, but associated with the family of
President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"If members of the Kenyan
parliament are serious about fighting corruption, then attempts to intimidate
journalists into silence must be abandoned immediately," said CPJ
sub-Saharan Africa Representative Muthoki Mumo. "We urge the
parliamentarians to stop trying to intimidate Dinah Ondari, Anthony Mwangi, and
their colleagues with threats and investigations and instead allow them to
freely do their work of covering the legislature."
On July 31 in the National Assembly, one
of the two houses of parliament, MP Robert Pukose, a member of the ruling
Jubilee Party, accused the People Daily of committing an
"affront" to the assembly and said its reporting was a blanket
condemnation of MPs, according to the Hansard proceedings report.
According to the Hansard report, Pukose
asked the National Assembly speaker, Justin Muturi, to "take action"
against the People Daily and have the newspaper investigated
by a parliamentary committee in relation to its reporting. Pukose's calls were
backed by other MPs including Majority Leader Aden Duale and Minority Leader
John Mbadi, according to the Hansard.
In response, Muturi directed the house's
Powers and Privileges Committee to investigate these claims, according to the
Hansard. Muturi said that no decision would be made to ban the journalists or
the media house "until such time as the Committee will make a
recommendation one way or other," according to the Hansard.
Ondari told her employer that two
legislators on August 1 in separate incidents threatened to bar her and Mwangi
from parliament unless they apologized for their reporting, according to Bosire
and a report from the People
Daily. Speaking to CPJ, Bosire declined to name the two MPs, but said
he gave their names to Muturi, who asked Bosire to file a formal complaint.
In a letter seen by CPJ, the National
Assembly clerk on August 1 invited Peter Opondo, the editor-in-chief of
Mediamax, the People Daily's parent company, to appear the next day
to "assist" with "investigations" into allegations of
misconduct in the house.
Bosire told CPJ that this letter was
sent after People Daily complained during a call on August 1
with Muturi.
A team of five Mediamax employees,
including Bosire and Mwangi, appeared in front of the committee yesterday as
directed, according to Bosire. The editor told CPJ that they requested--and
were granted -- 10 days to prepare a submission for the Powers and Privileges
Committee.
In exchanges with CPJ over text message
on July 31 and August 1, Muturi said that reports the journalists had been
summoned were false and said they had been invited to "shed light on the
matter which relates to ethics" of MPs and that he considered them
"whistle-blowers." Muturi said that the journalists would not be
required to reveal their sources during the hearings.
During a media gala today in Nairobi,
Muturi said that People Daily journalists, Ondari and Mwangi,
should be praised for exposing corruption in the National Assembly, according
to a report by the Daily Nation.
CPJ's repeated attempts to reach Pukose,
Duale and Mbadi over their mobile phones on August 1 and August 3 were
unsuccessful.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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