PRESS FREEDOM

            PREREQUISITES OF PRESS FREEDOM IN KENYA

The United Nations Universal Declaration of human rights Article 19 defines press freedom as; “the right to freedom of opinion and expression, this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.”Although this definition might not be universal, it does to some extend sums up what press freedom means in most states.

            Since press freedom is important in social, economic and political development of the people, the state must provide an arable ground for growth of such freedom. Article 33 (1) of the constitution Of Kenya on freedom of expression clearly states that, “every person has the right to freedom of expression which includes-freedom to seek, receive or impart information or ideas.”This means that from people seeking information from the government officials, bloggers offering their opinions on internet to newspaper columnist expressing their points of view on pages of dailies. The government must accommodate all these. And although such freedoms are limited courtesy of constitutional provisions, it does not either give a state the power to freely oppress by arresting and intimidation of journalists whereby they misuses such freedom.

            Free ownership of the media is also a key ingredient to press freedom in Kenya. For people to get all different views of information on issues, ownership of the media should not be restricted to certain people on the basis of class, culture religion or political views. Everyone has a free will to choose what to listen to what to watch or discard. If it’s a person looking up something on internet, he/she can take what suits them best as contemplated on Article 35 of the constitution of Kenya 2010.The state is also restricted from exercising control or interfering with production and circulation of information by a medium as Article 34 (2,3,4) states that, “the state shall not –(a) exercise control over or interfere with any person engaged in broadcasting, the production or circulation of any publication or dissemination of information by any medium or (b) penalize any person for any opinion or view on the content of any broadcast, publication or dissemination.”

            Part three of this article also gives any person a freedom to establish a media house, electronic or print broadcast. And although this is subject to licensing procedures, any media house will be established regardless of politics or other factors. It states that, “broadcasting and other electronic media have freedom of establishment, subject only to licensing procedures.” It goes further to expound on reason for such procedures.

            The state must also surrender information that is important to the public. Such information are those held by the state officials regarding public funds,spending,security of the state or any information held by another person that might require the state to compel such person to give such information that might be crucial in exercising or protection of fundamental freedom. Article 35 (1)a and b clearly underlines this freedom with the second part stating that, “every citizen has the right to access information held by the state and any other person and required for exercising or protection of fundamental freedom.” With time the state must also provide the public with information that affect or important for the people as underlined on part three of this article

            Lastly, the state must also refrain from exercising media bias if press freedom is anything to be achieved soon. Laws must be applied equally and accordingly regardless of the views, alienation or nature of the media owners.Kenya has for a long time seen the government attacking media houses with the famous raid of The Standard Group in 2006 standing out.

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MEDIA AND THE STATE

                               Perceived threats of the media over state

        

 When the 10^th parliament passed The Information Communication Bill 2013 a forthright ago, it was clearly seen by many critics as a move by the government to muzzle the ever increasing power of the media. Others viewed this as a tactical move by politicians to take away the democratic space that has been painfully fought for many years since the advent of multipartism in early 1990’s.

            However, irrespective of these opinions, the fact stands out that this bill that has been branded draconian with contagious clauses was hurriedly passed by a house shy of a quorum and its now resting on the hands of the head of state to either make it a law or take it back to the house. Whatever it comes out the whole thing emanated from what the government might have considered an embarrassment when the media openly ex very posed the security weakness and naivity in handling the Westgate mall attack on late September. At the very least the government looked unprepared to handle security emergencies; there was apparent lack of coordination among the various agencies that were involved. Most notably of all, Interior cabinet secretary Joseph Ole Lenku constantly fed the country with conflicting information regarding the number of the terrorist in the mall and the causalities.On the other hand hand army chief General Julius Karangi is alleged to have bullied his way in involving his men to take over the operation to the shock of the various police units that were already carrying out the operation. The media put all these flaws to the public, on the third day of the operation journalist were pushed as far as 300 meters from the mall for what the army considered “security purposes”. In the end the coup ended in a dramatic fashion n left the public with many questions than answers. Consequently the government felt that the media had pinned the too much to the wall.

            Another threat that the media posses over the state are its role in analysis and interpretation of issues. The most crucial role in any state is checking on the government, that is playing the watchdog role. In as much as some government officials might want to strike deals in the dark, establish unconstitutional policies or oppress the citizens among other things, the media cannot relent on such. With most of the state officials taking advantage of the large illiterate population, the media stands for them by explaining, interpreting and analyzing issues that no other institution would have played that role. Most of these government officials have found themselves on the receiving end with regards to issues of corruption, immorality and poor leadership. Nonetheless the press shapes these leaders keeps them on the check and helps to eliminate injustices and helps fight for the oppressed while at the same time trying to stand for the truth and honesty in reporting these issues.

                Even though Article 34 (1) a of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 clearly states that;”The state shall not exercise control over or interfere with any person engaged in broadcasting, the production or circulation of any publication or dissemination of information by any medium”, the press was hugely blamed for aggravating the post-election violence of 2007-08.Many government officials and politicians argued that were it not for the way the media handled the violence, the magnitude of the chaos might not have taken the lives of over 1300 Kenyans and rendered 650,000 homeless.Furthermore,it goes without mention that during that fateful period, most people restricted themselves to their homes catching the events of the elections on television or listening to radio.

The media might have therefore exposed the peaceful places to violence by showing disturbing pictures and sending alarming messages by most vernacular radio stations.In fact, Journalists Joshua Sang at that time a radio presenter at Kass Fm is accused of perpetrating violence by use of radio. He is currently facing the charges at The Hague based court ICC.The state at that time therefore felt that the media frustrated its efforts to quell the violence at a time the country needed it most.

            Emergence of large media industries is also viewed by many as a threat to the government.J.Baran,(2006) when writing on mass communication defined oligopoly-a concentration of media industries into a smaller number of companies and such has an enormous effect on mass communication. This is therefore a great concern to the state in the sense that such kind of media ownership is likely to rival government parastatals with the similar interests besides its impact in communicating to the masses. In some countries a media house is restricted on the number of audience it can concentrate into a niche. The state must therefore work out a plan to curb such continued trend of the media ownership. Already, a clause on such is contained on the bill that is awaiting the presidential assention.

            The nature of the press being a threat must therefore be explored and regulated. On the other hand the media, the public together with the state must strive to achieve a balance on how each must depend on the other.

By Korir.

SECURITY MENACE

‘NYUMBA KUMI’, A RESPITE FOR INSECURITY MENACE

When the government announced last week that ‘Nyumba kumi’ (ten houses) community policing concept was going to be implemented, leaders across the country reacted in different tunes.

KDF OFFICERS AT WESTGATE

First, some members of parliament dismissed the plan on grounds that it will create different centers of power on the grassroots administration, then citizens living in urban centers added the voice that it may not work in such areas .Whether their opinions count or not depends on how positive the Kenyans will be in embracing the initiative.Nyumba kumi seeks to facilitate information sharing and promote confidence between the people and the police. For a long time most Kenyans have either failed to give the police important security information or they have ignored under the guise that it’s none of their business or for the fear of being haunted.

It’s high time that Kenyans should re-think about this and initiate the plan for the security of the country at large. In the wake of the devastating terrorism attack at Westgate last month, police believe that the attackers had rented a house in Parklands three months before they reigned at the mall. This subsequently raised a series of questions to be answered. How did the terrorist manage to stay and operate in that area for such a long time without the suspicion of the neighbours? And if they did suspect their activities, what action was taken?

INTERIOR SECRETARY OLE LENKU

The questions will go a long way to be answered but we can avoid such an incident in future by embracing this initiative that has been hugely successful in our neighboring countries like Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda. In Tanzania the leaders are called balozi (ambassadors) or mwenyekiti wa kitongoji (village chairman).A household has to notify him of all the visitors and their period of stay in that area. This will in turn help the security system to keep a record of movement of people from one area to another and record their activities.

 The onus is therefore on all citizens and leaders to put politics aside and support the government in smoking out criminals and terrorists out the villages and urban areas

HIGHER EDUCATION IN KENYA

STATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN KENYA APPALLING

When former president Hon Mwai Kibaki elevated The Kenya Polytechnic University College to Technical University of Kenya early this year, it was hugely expected to start a new road map under which higher education in Kenya would be expanded and made accessible to the rapidly increasing population.

            Little did we know that that was not to be case, more universities across the country were chattered bringing to a total number of public universities to twenty. Although this was a good initiative by the government in a bid to streamline vision 2030 agenda, but now the move seems ill timed and misplaced. The new universities are facing multiple challenges of coping up with the bulky number of students admitted by the joint admissions board (JAB) each year. Most of them lack enough infrastructure, academic resource materials, academic staff and accommodation. It therefore leaves us with a huge question whose answer cannot be fathomed. How does a student gets admitted in a university where there is limited or no academic facilities?

            According to the University’s Act, universities are supposed to be research and innovation (www.cue.or.ke/‎ ) centres to provide the country with necessary labour skills in different sectors.Instead; most universities have become theory oriented even in purely technical courses like design, engineering and journalism. Students no longer spend time in practical fields; instead they attend a heavy schedule of lectures ranging from morning to evening throughout the week. Most of these schedules do not take into account that students are supposed to spend time in libraries gathering academic resourses.at the same time these academic resources might not be adequate for all the students and the lectures to conduct studies and research. It’s disgusting that even the administrators of these institutions have turned a blind eye to these obvious challenges. Most of them are either not concerned about the welfare of the students or have given up the challenge coming up with a realistic way of facing out these challenges. They have become too naïve to steer a sector that is so crucial to the industry and economic development of this country.

            On the other hand, the remaining Polytechnics and Technical institutes are slowly being swallowed by the already established universities and turning them into constituent colleges and satellite canpuses.These institutions are supposed to provide middle level skilled labor for the industries that are fast developing and seal a dangerous gap that arises when universities do not provide the required skills. It’s almost impossible to travel nowadays a kilometer without seeing a large billboard or a hurriedly printed banner declaring presence of a university even within an already crowded urban center like Nairobi central business district. If this trend is anything to go by, there is no denying that with time the country will lack the much needed skills that cannot be adequately provided by the universities or other institutions of higher learning.

 Sectors like Agriculture, motor vehicle assembly, design art and jua kali will most likely to lose quality and impact negatively on the economic development of the country.

            Even though there is a common feeling among many academic experts that education is rapidly being commercialized, whether this claim can hold any water or not is not important, what is crucial is for various concerned sectors to put the government to task so as to achieve equilibrium between the output of the training institutions and the industry needs. It simply means the universities and other institutions producing what the industry urgently recur so that cases of wasted skills does not occur.

STUDENTS DURING GRADUATION CEREMONY

            The government therefore needs to seriously evaluate its education policies that will spearhead management of higher education in the country. Establishment of both public and private universities must be controlled while technical institutions and national polytechnics must be protected and autonomies besides adequately equipping and expanding their scopes in terms of programs and training. We need to borrow a leaf from countries such as China, Japan and Indonesia whose economies have thrived tremendously courtesy of an industry friendly education system. Most notably of all, Japans’ education system played a key role in countries’ economic development after the Second World War. Of all the courses offered in vocational programs, 72% account business and industry courses. At the same time most university students fee are subsidized by the government and other related institutions.

This there must act a lesson to our country. We need to reconstruct our higher education policies and re-align them appropriately depending on how best it can boost economic development hence make vision 2030 a reality in the offing.

challenges of higher education in kenya