The media Tuesday delivered a firm statement to the Government of its
opposition to the draconian and oppressive Information and
Communication (Amendment) Bill 2013 meant to gag journalists.
In a show of unity, journalists turned out in their hundreds across
the country, honouring a call to go to the streets to express their
displeasure with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s memorandum to the National
Assembly on the offensive Bill.
Journalists hit the streets in Mombasa, Nairobi, Eldoret, Nyeri,
Embu, Meru, Nakuru, Malindi, Busia and Kilifi, among other towns.
In Nairobi, they staged a protest in the central business district,
taking issue with Members of Parliament for passing the Bill and
challenged them to show their respect for the Constitution and freedom
of expression by turning up in large numbers to shoot it down.
Journalists accused the Jubilee Government of seeking to erode the
democratic gains realised over the years, many of them due to the media.
In Nairobi, the protest began in the centre of the capital and made
its way to Parliament through the busy Kenyatta, Moi and Harambee
avenues, with journalists waving placards and sealing their mouths to
symbolise the Government’s gagging of the media.
“The draconian provisions contained in the KICA Bill is an attack on us,” they shouted.
In their appeals to the President, Deputy President William Ruto,
Attorney General Githu Muigai and the National Assembly, the journalists
outlined the issues of concerns and urged the Government to address
them.
Their petition to Uhuru was handed over to the Director of Public
Communications, Munyori Buku, a former journalist, the Director Digital
Dennis Itumbi and the Director of Communications in the Interior
Ministry Mwenda Njoka, by the Kenya Editors’ Guild Vice-Chairman David
Ohito and Kenya Correspondents Association (KCA) Chairman Janak Oloo.
Mr Buku assured the journalists that the petition would reach Uhuru.
Standard
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