Journalists quit over assaults

COLUMNISTS from Kenya’s top media group resigned en masse yesterday, a day after police punched and kicked journalists covering the attempted deportation of an opposition politician at Nairobi airport.

Miguna Miguna was detained on Monday when he returned on a flight from abroad, a month after being deported in a dispute over his dual citizenship.

Taking aim at what they regard as deteriorating democratic tolerance in Kenya, eight columnists accused Nation Media Group’s (NMG) management of interfering in editorial decisions, suggesting it was too close to the government.

After his deportation last month, a court ordered Miguna be granted re-entry. But on Monday Nairobi immigration officers refused to accept his Kenyan passport and asked him to surrender his Canadian travel document, his lawyer Nelson Havi said.

An hours-long standoff ensued before several dozen plainclothes officers dragged Miguna onto an Emirates airline plane bound for Dubai, opposition Senator James Orengo said.

Miguna was then removed from the plane and taken to an airport police station, where he remained yesterday without access to his lawyer, Orengo said.

During the scuffle, a number of journalists were assaulted.

“I watched a police officer kick my colleague in the back then, with his other leg, kick in him in the head,” journalist Ibrahim Oruko said. – Reuters