Walu,
 
Actually the story came from the Media Institute and was shared on various Kenyan
discussion groups and I was only passing it on. I'm not related to Alex Gakuru but
its likely we may find ourselves working on the same or similar issues or we may
even have differing views.
 
Some of these corporates have been harassing members of the media. It was only a
year or two ago where a corporate entity was noted by a Minister for passing brown
envelopes in return for favorable stories or wielding influence in such a way that a journalist
who had exposed the entity's activities was summarily dismissed by his boss via sms when
he was away on leave. Fortunately the journalist was vindicated when his boss got the boot
and he was reinstated.
 
That foreign entity is again in the news as a mysterious deal has been worked out with
the regulator and the government disregarding a court ruling which one can read about
below. It was the same entity that published advertisements in the dailies using a non-existent
PO Box and asked thousands of Kenyans to apply for jobs. If the government cannot obey the courts, what faith should Kenyans have in the judiciary? A respected high court judge issues
an unequivocal ruling but it is ignored, one can only surmise that it has been assumed that
Kenyans have forgotten about the issues in the matter, are tired of fighting corrupt practices
and will not raise a finger to oppose this move.
 
http://www.timesnews.co.ke/14apr06/nwsstory/news3.html
 
Not to digress from the issue by going into the matter above, the identity of the owner of
the 5-10% entity was revealed 8 years ago in a reputable UK based publication. Instead of
harassing local media, the corporate should be harassing the UK publications. To do
otherwise suggests that the corporate is attempting to prevent the truth from getting to
Kenyans.
 
While I can't quite pin down an answer to your questions, I can only add that the media has a
duty to act responsibly and within the confines of the law. If the corporate body has
something to hide by attempting to muzzle the media on something that has already been
mentioned in the public domain, it should only strenghten the resolve of the Parliamentary
Select committee including the British government to investigate the corporate's owners further
to determine if public shares were transferred legally or illegally to private hands.
 
My arguments against excessive foreign ownership of Kenyan entities are aimed at showing
the danger of handing over our assets to foreigners. The foreign entities have had the audacity to
strangle the media, thumb their noses at the citizens of Kenya by snubbing parliamentary
committees that seek to investigate their activities and dictate terms under which privatisation
should be undertaken. When we continue to head in this direction, the country stands to have
what is known as the token "uhuru wa bendera", we will lack our sovereignity and be subject to
the whims and wishes of foreign corporate entities that could care less about the Kenyans but
more about the millions of dollars earned from Kenyans that they cart off to foreign coffers. 
 
Mike
 
On 7/20/07, John Walubengo <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:
Aiih!

Theuri, these your stories are hot like pepper...might u be
related to one Alex Gakuru?

But on a serious note, I had never realised that business
corporates have the mechanism to effectively and
permanently extingiush the media - in ways that many a
government can only be envious about.

...makes one wonder - is the media selecting the wrong
enemies? Or is the media part of the problem in that it
often takes part in a dynamic conspiracy with either the
Govt or the Corporates at the expense of the Consumer?

jst thinking loudly,
walu.
--- Mike Theuri < mike.theuri@gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: The Media Institute <mediainst@wananchi.com >
> Date: Jul 18, 2007 2:12 PM
> Subject: [africa-oped] [Fwd: Safaricom intimidating
> media...]
> To: africa-oped@yahoogroups.com
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>
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> ---------------------------- Original Message
> ----------------------------
> Subject: [Fwd: Safaricom intimidating media...]
> From: "Editor" < info@eastafricapress.com
> <info%40eastafricapress.com>>
> Date: Wed, July 18, 2007 7:02 pm
> To: kodi@kodibarth.com <kodi%40kodibarth.com>
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>
----------------------------------------------------------
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> We thought you might want to read this...
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> Safaricom intimidating media ahead of IPO
> http://eastafricapress.net/f.php?sp=81
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> The price the Aga Khan paid to have NTV back on air
> http://eastafricapress.net/f.php?sp=85
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> What Monitor journalist Andrew Mwenda thinks about the
> Aga Khan and The
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> http://eastafricapress.net/f.php?s=63
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> Dar newspaper infuriates government with defense expose
> http://eastafricapress.net/f.php?s=66
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> Special Report:
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