Outrage as journalists barred from Senate meet
Outrage greeted yesterday’s move by a Senate committee to block journalists from covering the grilling of Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai over the Monday arrest of three senators.
Matiang’i alongside Mutyambai and Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti had been summoned to appear before the Senate committee on National Security and Foreign Relations to explain the reasons behind the arrests of senators Christopher Lang’at (Bomet), Cleophas Malala (Kakamega) and Steve Lelegwe (Samburu).
“What are you doing here?” Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji, who chairs the committee asked TV crews who had arrived early to set up their equipment for live broadcast.
“I don’t remember calling you. Get out and we shall call you when we need you,” he thundered even as he ordered the parliamentary orderlies to eject the journalists and not to allow any media to access the premises.
Illegal arrests
“I am shocked that the Senate Committee on Security chased the media from a sitting inquiring the illegal arrest of senators,” Elgeyo-Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen protested.
Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr said the public has a right to know the details of the unlawful arrest and detention of their colleagues.
Executive Director of International Centre for Policy and Conflict Ndung’u Wainaina accused Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka of failing to adhere to the dictates of the Constitution.
The Kenya Parliamentary Journalist Association also condemned the move terming it shameful and unacceptable for parliamentary journalists to be allowed into House committees at the convenience of legislators.
“It is sad that it is only when it suits their (senators) interests that they demand media coverage yet on such a matter of great public interest they are kept out,” KPJA chair Moses Njagi said in a statement to newsrooms.
The Media Council of Kenya condemned the act saying the treatment of journalists is “not only unacceptable, but representative of a worrying trend where journalists in the course of duty are barred from crucial proceedings of legislative bodies”.
The council called on Lusaka to protect the freedom of scribes to crucial information.
