by the recent actions meted by the government on
are shocked and outraged
the standard group.
On Wednesday, 1 March 2006, the Government of
unprecedented and vicious attack on the STANDARD
GROUP premises, harassed
the journalists, confiscated equipment,
interrupted TV transmission and
burned copies of the days newspaper edition.
The Government has detained and continues to hold
in detention three
Standard journalists apparently for misreporting
politician had secretly met the President at
State House.
When interviewed, the Internal Security Minister
Hon. Muchuki did not deny
the governments involvement in this horrifying
event of March 1st stating
state security as the reason behind the
governments actions.
We see this as crude and gross abuse of power and
our constitution.
At a recent ICT strategy conference held at the
safari park hotel his
Excellency the president of Kenya unveiled
Kenyas ICT strategy, whose main
objective is transforming Kenyas economy
facilitating the private sector to serve as the
driver for economic
development. This crude action contradicts the
governments recent
objectives to maintain a favourable climate for
investment and creation of
jobs for Kenyans.No investor would place their
money in an environment
where the rule of law and order is disregarded
with utmost impunity.
This action is also reminiscent of the dark days
in Kenya when the media was
constantly harassed in order to suppress the
freedom of expression, thought
and association.The action demonstrates that
custodian of law and order is not committed to
foundation for a modern and civilised society.
Whereas the Government may be validly aggrieved,
internationally acceptable mechanisms for seeking
redress through the courts
of law.The Kenya Telecommunication Act (1998
revised 2001) clearly spells
out the procedures that should be followed in the
event that a Media House
needs to be shutdown.
KICATNet translates this action as an attempt to
frighten the independent
media, limit Kenyans political space and erode
our human rights. It is also
a gross violation of our constitution.
KICTANet therefore strongly condemns the
governments actions and stands in
solidarity with the Kenyan media and particularly
our colleagues at the
standard media group.We take this opportunity
to remind the government of
Kenya that the foundation of a sound democracy is
and freedom of press.
It is therefore imperative that the Government
quickly moves to restore not
just investor confidence but also citizens
confidence in protection of our
fundamental human rights and democratic space
Kenya launched an
that a leading opposition
through promoting and
the Government, which is the
the rule of law as the basic
there are established and
the right to information
that has been gained largely
due to a free press.
KICTANet is appalled by the actions and urges the
Minister(s) and the
Agency/ies involved to publicly apologise and
expeditiously restore the
services of the Media House as well as paying for
all the losses that the
standard group have incurred.
Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet)
Contact Details for the network
Judy Kimiti
jkimiti@email.kictanet.or.ke
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Submitted by: Sparrow David Malaba - KITC <sdmalaba@yahoo.com> 2006-03-04 03:40:01 EST5
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