Calls mount to probe attacks on Kenyan journalists

A prison guard stands by burning tyres in Kisumu Picture: AP Photo

A prison guard stands by burning tyres in Kisumu Picture: AP Photo

Published Aug 18, 2017

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Johannesburg - Authorities in Kenya should credibly investigate incidents of harassment against journalists covering the aftermath of disputed elections and should reform the Firearms Act to lower barriers on journalists' ability to wear protective gear, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday.

In the week following Kenya's national election on 8 August, CPJ said it spoke with 10 journalists who complained they had been assaulted or harassed in the course of their reporting. 

As CPJ has documented, journalists were also targeted for attack and intimidation during the pre-election campaign period. Opposition leader Raila Odinga said he would contest incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta's victory at the Supreme Court, according to press reports.

On August 12, Kenya Television Network (KTN) journalist Duncan Khaemba was reporting on violent post-election protests in Nairobi's Kibera slum when he was arrested for allegedly possessing a helmet and body armor without a proper license, according to police documents seen by CPJ and Khaemba. 

Police told CPJ that the charges were dropped on August 15.

Kenya's Firearms Act classifies bulletproof vests as firearms and stipulates that no one may acquire or possess them without a license. 

Khaemba confirmed that the had a copy of the end-user certificate for the gear at the time of arrest. 

The commanding officer of Kilimani police division, Joseph Muthee, told CPJ that a license was needed in addition to this certificate. He added that the licensing law was meant to guard against misuse of body armor by criminals.

Khaemba and KTN Managing Editor Joe Ageyo said that security forces had never previously questioned them about licenses for their protective gear. 

Kenya Union of Journalists Secretary General Erick Oduor said he believed the arrest was intended to disrupt Khaemba's reporting.

Protests broke out in parts of Nairobi and Kenya's western Nyanza region on August 11 after the election commission announced that Kenyatta was the winner of the presidential race. 

Kenyatta's main rival, Raila Odinga of the National Super Alliance (NASA), dismissed the elections as fraudulent, and protesters took to streets in parts of the country where NASA is most popular.

Khaemba was not the only journalist to face trouble while reporting from Kibera. Matina Stevis, Africa correspondent with The Wall Street Journal, said that one police officer hit her over the head with a wooden stick on August 12. 

The helmet she was wearing protected her from injury.

Also on August 12, Neil Shea, a freelance journalist shooting a documentary in Kibera, reported being attacked by four or five security officers who beat him and destroyed his camera. 

He said that another officer, who was familiar with his work, rescued him, but by then his memory cards were gone. 

He said he did not know who took them.

In the western city of Kisumu, an opposition stronghold, police officers blocked journalists from approaching demonstrators, according to media reports and two reporters who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Simon Achola, a reporter with government-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), said that security personnel took his phone and deleted his photographs of the protests. 

According to media reports, the police also harasses reporters from the privately owned Citizen Television at the Miruka Hotel in Kisumu.

When contacted by CPJ, Mwenda Njoka, a spokesperson for the Kenyan Ministry of the Interior, denied that security officials deliberately targeted journalists covering the elections. 

Although he declined to comment on specific cases, he said altercations between police and journalists began when security officials tried to move reporters away from dangerous areas.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority, a government watchdog that investigates police misconduct, told CPJ that it had received no complaints from journalists, but that it would investigate any allegations it received that police were "culpable for assaulting journalists" or "curtailing their work".

African News Agency

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