Staff ReporterKenya’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”.
