Attacks against media undermine democracy
Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot is no ordinary politician. He is the Senate Leader of Majority and, therefore, a powerful figure in the Kenya Kwanza administration. He occupies a pedestal at the heart of power. That is why his comments on Monday, in which he derided the media by calling it a cartel cannot be taken rightly.
The senator represents an overzealous cabal in government that consider independent, robust and critical media as an enemy and an obstacle to their agenda. The desire of any nascent administration would be to have cheer-leading media that suppresses divergent and alternative thought and ideas as well as buttresses the ego of those in power.
Not surprisingly, there is discernible discomfort by the Kenya Kwanza administration with the media, which it treats as an irritant. Senator Cheruiyot’s criticism follows in the path of utterances by the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who made accusations against the media only last week.
The leaders forget the reform discourse that yielded the freedoms that Kenyans have anchored in the Constitution which protects freedom of expression and of media. Many Kenyans paid with their lives while others still bear the scars they suffered in the long battle for freedom of the media and expression that some now take for granted.
These liberties, which the two swore to protect when they took office, are enshrined in the Constitution and their place there was informed by an ugly history in which past regimes assaulted Kenyans’ freedom to express themselves and to hold divergent views on governance.
A free and independent media is a potent arsenal for democracy. An independent press protects the vulnerable, demands accountability and speaks truth to power even when it is not convenient to do so. It is a gadfly for public good.
As one American newspaper warns, democracy dies in darkness. Darkness thrives where the media fails or are curtailed from shining light on the goings on in the public sphere. There is no denying that like any institution, the Kenyan media is not without blemish.
That is why journalists operate under a professional and ethical code of conduct, which is enforced by their employers and the Media Council of Kenya. The emerging targeted attack against the media as an institution amounts to an affront on the Constitution, which the leaders swore to protect, uphold and defend. It is an ominous sign that should be a wake up call to defenders of liberty and democracy.
