Heavily armed and masked police commandos smashed printing presses and seized transmission equipment Thursday in raids on Kenya’s second-largest media company, while three reporters were charged with creating public alarm in what officials said was a national security case…
The raid is linked to the media group’s coverage of the corruption scandal surrounding the Prisident of Kenya and his administration. The scandal started several years ago when the country’s top anti-corruption official John Githongo resigned from his post alleging that the government is not doing enough to combat rampant corruption and that Mwai Kibaki is not sticking to his commitments to help rid the country of bribery and graft. There is a nice profile on Githongo and the early stages of the crisis on the BBC News website.
Media groups are outraged over this attack on the freedom of speech. You can read some of the quotes here. There is also a number of comments from people across the world on what happened in Kenya on this BBC forum.
I often struggle to understand actions such as this. If you feel like journalists are publishing stories that are simply not true – take them to court. Obviously, there is a lot to be said for corrupt courts, however, trying to solve issues within the legal systems seems much more reasonable than a brute force attack on the media offices. Sweeping the problem under the carpet and closing the channels of communication is a good strategy to create an illusion that things are better than they are. But in the end of the day its just that – an illusion, and people in Kenya do realize that. Will those responsible for this attack be held accountable? Or will things go on as they are?
Published Date: March 03, 2006