Shannon Ebrahim
IT IS hard to imagine a situation where as a South African editor I would need to sleep on the floor of my office in down-town Pretoria, fearing arrest by plain-clothed cops camped outside the building.
But this is what has happened in Kenya – supposedly also a beacon of democracy on the continent, with a robust media that reported freely since the end of former president Daniel arap Moi’s rule.
But those days are long gone. Some of my media colleagues in Kenya were sleeping on the floors of their offices on Wednesday for fear of arrest as plain-clothed police officers camped outside.
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta had just been in South Africa, attending the ANC’S 106th anniversary on January 8, and was given a rousing welcome as “Comrade Kenyatta”. Little did we think that less than a month later journalists in his country would fear for their well-being and freedom.
The African Editors’ Forum, chaired by our own Jovial Rantao, has “condemned in the strongest possible terms the outdated, draconian and deplorable attempt by the government of Kenya to muzzle the media covering an event organised by opposition leader Raila Odinga”.
That event was what some have characterised as a “stunt” by the opposition, which held a mock swearing-in ceremony of Odinga as president in Uhuru Park on Tuesday. The opposition remains aggrieved by what they consider was a sham re-run election in October.
In September the Supreme Court annulled the August presidential elections due to a botched count and ordered a re-run. But the opposition boycotted the re-run as the country’s electoral commission said it could not guarantee a proper ballot and judges were being intimidated. As a result, Kenyatta commenced a second five-year term.
The government called Tuesday’s mock swearing-in ceremony treason, but to the thousands of opposition supporters attending the event it was an expression of dissatisfaction. The National Super Alliance, which Odinga leads, has said it has launched a national resistance to a government which was not elected according to the constitution.
What appears self-evident is that Kenyatta and Odinga are engaged in a high-stakes game of brinkmanship in a country that is more polarised than ever. But what cannot be tolerated is the muzzling of the media at a time when the Fourth Estate is needed more than ever to carry out its duty to inform the public about what is going on.
As the African Editors’ Forum statement noted, the presence of journalists (at an event) is neither an indication of support or lack thereof, but a constitutional duty to record for the public events of major public interest.
The Kenyan government, in shutting independent television and radio stations that covered the event, signalled intolerance and a slide towards authoritarianism.