Kenya

Godfrey Mwampembwa’s drawings include a 2009 cartoon that mocked President Kenyatta (finance minister at the time) for a $100 million accounting error.

The government’s recent pressure on nongovernmental organizations threatens a central pillar of the country’s democratic system—and ordinary Kenyans appreciate what they stand to lose.

The harassment and intimidation of the nongovernmental organisations Haki Africa and Muslims for Human Rights, is connected to their legitimate human rights work, Humans Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Civil Society Organizations Reference Group, and National Civil Society Congress say.

Kenyan journalists are increasingly being forced to make an impossible choice in their quest to report public interest stories, as they face attacks and threats from both militant groups and government officials.

Local journalists and a family member told CPJ they suspected John Kituyi may have been targeted in connection with a story in the Mirror Weekly that described the International Criminal Court case against Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto and alleged official interference with prosecution witnesses.

The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s original request to register had been denied in March 2013 because their name was deemed “unacceptable.”

Kenyan activist Phyllis Omido is being recognised for standing up to the people running a poisonous smelter that endangered her community in Mombasa.

The Kenyan High Court decision has been hailed as an encouraging sign for the protection of people’s fundamental freedoms.

The law, passed by parliament on December 18, 2014, and signed by the president on December 19, expands the search, seizure, and surveillance powers of the National Intelligence Service, curbs media and speech freedoms, and limits the rights of arrested and accused persons.

Kenya’s Security Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 would, among other measures, expand intelligence agency surveillance powers. Several provisions would restrict media coverage of terrorist acts in Kenya, potentially inhibiting journalists seeking to report on matters in the public interest from doing so.

Last month, police threatened and briefly detained Justus Ochieng, a reporter for the privately owned daily The Star, in connection with a story he wrote that alleged criminal activity by police officers in the region.

The motive behind the arrest of Ibrahim Said Salah remains unspecified, but journalists believe that some politicians in Puntland are using Kenyan contacts to arrest the journalist, due to his reports on the formation of political parties in the northeast regions of Somalia.

The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s (NGLHRC) application to register was denied in 2013 because the Non-Governmental Organizations Coordination Board deemed the group’s name “unacceptable.”

A three-judge panel of the High Court in Nairobi has halted implementation of the Media Council Act 2013 and Kenya Information and Communications (Amendment) Act 2013 until the full Court considers the legal questions.

“Repression Across Borders” illustrates the persistence of attacks on Rwandan opponents and critics in exile, spanning the period of 1996 to 2014. The most recent case was the murder of Patrick Karegeya, a prominent Rwandan dissident who was found dead in Johannesburg, South Africa, on January 1, 2014.

Kenya’s media are preparing to launch a challenge to a new system of regulation introduced by President Uhuru Kenyatta. Early this month, journalists instructed senior lawyer Mr. James Aggery Orengo, who is also a senator, to file a petition challenging the Kenya Information and Communication Amendment Bill 2013.