Jan. 21, 2004 – An ongoing crackdown by the Kenya Government on alternative media has caused an outcry from journalists in this East Africa country.
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In the past month, police have raided newsstands, impounded thousands of newspapers and magazines, and put over 50 vendors behind bars.
The government cracked down on the ‘Gutter Press’ a month ago, accusing it of printing false stories which, in the past month, have included allegations of an affair between the President’s wife and the Statehouse Comptroller, and reports on the the HIV status of several Members of Parliament, according to the East Africa Standard and the BBC. According to the BBC, the articles in these publications are often written anonymously, and occasionally even the publisher remained anonymous.
Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) sees the crackdown on the alternative media as an outright bid to curtail a free press. “If the Government succeeds in gagging the alternative media, they will stop at nothing to gag the mainstream media,” Ezekiel Mutua, the KUJ secretary general, told The East Africa Standard.
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Although Kibaki was elected last year on a platform of respecting freedom of expression, which his predecessor, President Daniel arap Moi, was widely criticized for obstructing, the papers which are now being censored were sold openly under Moi, according to the BBC.
