Kenya’s recipe for breakdown of law

Kenya’s Daily Nation reported that the shutdown of NTV, Citizen and KTN entered a seventh day yesterday as lobbies warned that the defiance of the order and crackdown on opposition leaders “are a recipe for total breakdown of the rule of law and order in Kenya and can only lead to more violations of human rights”.

Raila Odinga, the leader of the opposition coalition party, the National Super Alliance, held the mock inauguration in the capital Nairobi last week after warning that the opposition would never recognise President Uhuru Kenyatta or his government after Kenyatta was sworn in for his second term in November. “It is unfathomable and ironic that three TV stations, whose role was only to cover an activity the government had definitely allowed to proceed, are being punished,” said the Civil Society Reference Group.

“They are being punished without being accorded a hearing so that the veracity of their alleged offence can be determined lawfully.” According to the group, if the government has a problem with the TV stations, the proper channel for dealing with the issue is to prosecute them through the legal system.

Kenyatta had warned before Odinga’s counter-inauguration that the licences of media stations would be revoked if they broadcast the mock swearing-in.

Kenyatta also warned that the inauguration was an act of treason and Odinga could be charged.