- Title: KENYA: Criticism mounts on government for night attack on media group
- Date: 3rd March 2006
- Summary: STANDARD WORKERS LOOKING ON, PILE OF BURNT NEWSPAPERS (2 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 18th March 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Kenya
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA55HKVRAS8F19Y55UIQ53XTUYS
- Story Text: Masked police armed with automatic rifles raided Kenya's second biggest media group on Thursday (March 2), forcing its television station off the air for a while and burning copies of the Standard newspaper.
The raid came two days after police arrested three journalists from the paper over a weekend story on political intrigue in President Mwai Kibaki's fractious coalition.
Senior officials from the media group denounced the raids as a throwback to the autocratic days of former leader Daniel arap Moi. Some saw it as reprisal for relentless attacks in local media on the government over corruption in recent weeks.
"We are very disappointed and in a way want to say very surprised for obvious reasons that these are very unexpected. The extreme reaction is not one that we have been used to if anything we expected the converse because since the 2002 elections media in his country has enjoyed a fair amount of freedom to be able to do whatever it is that they have to do," said Tom Mshindi, the chief executive office of the standard group.
Opposition leaders also condemned the attacks.
"No warrant, no warning, smashing property, beating up innocent security officers. This and I repeat again is a sad day for Kenya," said Uhuru Kenyatta, the official leader of the opposition in parliament.
On the streets a special edition of the rival Nation Newspaper condemned the raid as a "horrific assault" on basic liberties unprecedented in the 40 years since independence from Britain.
The paper was quickly gobbled up on the streets.
"This government is taking us back to dark days even Moi didn't do for us such a thing so the best thing for the government is to quit," said one Kenyan man who declined to be named.
Kenya maintains tough press laws drafted during the Moi era, when many journalists were arrested and tortured.
Despite new press freedoms introduced under Kibaki, who succeeded Moi on a reformist platform in 2002, many Kenyans fear a retreat to the repressive tactics Moi used to silence critics.
Shortly after midnight, scores of police armed with AK-47s stormed the offices of the Standard group's Kenya Television Network (KTN). They seized transmission equipment and hard disks.
The gunmen, who presented no warrant, detained four KTN staff members in a Nairobi police station before being told to release them two hours later.
The police, who local media said were from an elite rapid response unit, also went to the Standard's printing presses, smashing doors and breaking open padlocks before forcing workers to lie on the ground and setting light to thousands of copies of Thursday's edition outside the building, witnesses said.
Police were not immediately available for comment.
The disputed article claimed that Kibaki secretly met his rival Kalonzo Musyoka to discuss how the former minister could rejoin the cabinet. Both denied the report.
Smoking ashes of newspapers could still be seen outside the Standard's printing press. Despite the bonfire, some copies of the paper, which led with Musyoka's call to release the journalists detained on Tuesday could still be found in Nairobi.
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