Kenyan Television stations to remain shut until probe ends

January 31, 2018

Kenya’s Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i has said that Tuesday’s shutdown of the TV stations will remain in force until a full-scale investigation into a “serious breach of security” is concluded.

The three main TV stations were shut down after they refused to obey a government order not to cover yesterday’s “swearing-in” of opposition leader Raila Odinga, where he declared himself the “people’s president”.

A local journalist tweeted that Mr Matiang’i said that the switch off was done after the state got information that there was a planned “massacre”, which would have been “propelled” by live media coverage:

He also tweeted more details of the minister’s statement, which accused “some elements in the media” of working with the opposition’s “well-choreographed attempt to subvert or overthrow” President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government:

Kenyan journalists denounced the media ban as outrageous and in a statement called for “respect of the constitution” and an end to the “unprecedented intimidation of journalists”.