Kenya

(NDIMA/IFEX) – Journalists who write reports which tarnish the names of politicians will be beaten, Kenyan government Assistant Minister Fidelis Gumo has warned. ** Updates IFEX alert of 16 February 1999** On Saturday 20 February 1999, the minister described a section of Luhya (one of the tribes in Kenya) journalists as a “big let down”. […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – The publisher of the “Post on Sunday” weekly, Tony Gachoka, has fled Kenya. Gachoka fled on Monday, 15 February 1999, after the Attorney-General, Amos Wako, went to court to seek leave to institute criminal contempt proceedings and have Gachoka jailed. **Updates IFEX alert of 16 February 1999** Wako’s urgent application, heard on the […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 15 February 1999, a gang of twelve unidentified men abducted the editor of a Nairobi media professional journal and director of a non-governmental organization (NGO), Media Institute, and beat and tortured him before abandoning him in Karura Forest on the outskirts of Nairobi. David Makali, editor of “Expression Today”, a monthly newspaper […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – The publisher and editor-in-chief of a Nairobi weekly magazine entitled “Post on Sunday”, Tony Gachoka, faces an imminent jail sentence for printed comments implicating the Court of Appeal in bribery relating to the titanic legal battle between businessman Kamlesh Pattni and Dubai tycoon Ibrahim Ali. ** For background on cases involving Gachoka see […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – A High Court in Kenya has restrained “Finance” magazine, owned by opposition politician Njehu Gatabaki and published by Finance Institute Limited, from carrying articles insinuating that Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott was involved in the murder of former Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko and British tourist Julie Ward. The order was made on 28 […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 22 December 1998 Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott was granted court orders restraining opposition Member of Parliament Njehu Gatabaki from publishing articles linking him to the murder of former Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko, who was killed in February 1990. Lawyer Patrick Lumumba told Justice Kasanga Mulwa that Gatabaki had defamed his client […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 21 December 1998, Kenya’s largest selling daily, “The Daily Nation”, published by the Nation Media Group, was barred from covering proceedings at the Akiwumi Commission investigating the causes of the tribal clashes which rocked the country between 1992 and 1997. The inquiry was appointed by President Moi this year and is currently […]

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – As Kenyans await the results of the Ethnic Clashes Inquiry (see footnote), which started in July of this year, ARTICLE 19 is publishing “Kenya: Post-election political violence.” The report looks at some of the roots of the violence in the Rift Valley which took place in 1998 following the Presidential elections, and […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – The government ban on a book by Kenyan opposition leader Kenneth Matiba entitled “Return to Reason”, imposed soon after its publication, has been lifted following a Court of Appeal decision to overturn state orders preventing its sale. **Updates IFEX alerts of 16 June 1997 and 13 December 1996** The judges allowed publication of […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – The Nation Media Group has told a Nairobi columnist who writes for the “Sunday Nation”, Wahome Mutahi, that the newspaper will no longer publish his articles if he continues to satirise the head of state. Mutahi, who writes the popular “Whispers” column, told NDIMA that he received a call from his editor recently […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – According to NDIMA, on 17 October 1998, Kenyan government cabinet Minister Shariff Nassir warned that the ruling Kanu party would no longer tolerate what he called “insults from the press.” He told certain newspapers and magazines, which according to him were guilty of “specializing in hurling insults at President Moi and the government”, […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 13 October 1998, a case in which the managing director of Star Publishers Ltd and its editor-in-chief were charged with publishing an alarming publication was dismissed by a court in Nairobi. The withdrawal followed instructions by the Attorney-General. The prosecutor, Inspector Eutychus Mwangi, told magistrate M. W. Mwai that the prosecution wished […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – Two Nairobi journalists who are facing charges of producing a news publication without executing a publishers’ bond were denied bail on 10 September 1998 and remanded in custody until 16 September. George Nakhosi Wamalwa and Tom Oscar Alwaka first appeared before a magistrate on 9 July 1998. They denied irregularly publishing the “Kenya […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – A correspondent for the East African Standard newspaper, Mr. Waiyengera Abuyeka, based in Mwingi town in Eastern Province of Kenya ,was abducted on 6 September by a medical doctor who beat and injured him, and tore his clothes. The medical doctor is said to have been angered by a story filed by the […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 29 July 1998, the High Court in Nairobi declared a letter by Registrar-General Omondi-Mbago, in which he purported to have rejected an application to register “The Star”, to be of no consequence. Justice J. Oguk granted the newspaper “leave to apply for orders of certiorari and prohibition as a stay of the […]

(NDIMA/IFEX) – A guard working for “The Star” newspaper, who had been hijacked outside the newspaper’s offices in Nairobi by people who turned out to be plainclothes police officers, was released on 29 July 1998, after twenty hours in custody. No charges were brought against him, but police told him they would carry out further […]