Kenya's free press under attack
March 2, 2006 1:18 AM   Subscribe

 
Since titles don't appear on the Front Page, it would be good to mention location in the post.

Nothing here seems to say who was unhappy with the paper and TV station, nor why. Nothing but a big WTF.
posted by Goofyy at 1:27 AM on March 2, 2006


Nobody seems to know, the police are shrugging their shoulders and the government minister says he only learnt of it through other media.
posted by Navek Rednam at 1:38 AM on March 2, 2006


Hmmm, plenty of background is available through side links from all of the sources listed (BBC, Nation Media, Standard Group).

There's a lot going on politically in Kenya at present. I have to rush to a meeting, but I will try and put a precis of the last few months political wranglings in this post later. As a brief pointer, search the web for "Anglo Leasing" or "Goldenberg" with the word "Scandal".

That upcoming post of mine notwithstanding, this is still a major deal.

(PS, First tag says Kenya and is on the front page, I didn't think the quote needed any more simplifying (grammar correction aside), it speaks for itself and I would be concerned wherever it happened)
posted by davehat at 1:47 AM on March 2, 2006


FWIW - i came to the comments to figure out where this was going on.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 1:55 AM on March 2, 2006


Reprint of the Nation article is here
posted by patricio at 3:12 AM on March 2, 2006


OK, not sure why I thought tags went on the front page, I just thought they did. Clearly they don't. Pole sana.

You're right, this post would be better if the headline was actually in the FPP.

So, as promised, some background.

Over the last few months, the independent press in Kenya, led by the Nation Media Group and the Standard, have been increasing the pressure on the Kenyan government to follow through on major cases of corruption. One of the cases is recent and appears to have been perpetrated by the current administration. The other two cases date back the the early nineties and before.

The three major incidents of corruption that have occurred over the last few decades are, in order of perpetration:

1. The Land Grab (Ndugu Report) Scandal (8 page RTF file, sorry guys)
2. The Goldenberg Scandal
3. The Anglo Leasing Scandal

You can get a lot of information by reading the excellent wikipedia entries about Kenyan corruption or by searching news stories in the Nation or the Standard's websites. Allafrica.com is a good resource too.

These corruption scandals demonstrate how a powerful elite have systematically looted the treasury of taxpayer's money for their own means whilst stealing the people's land from under their feet.

A lot of powerful people in Kenya are involved in these scandals but their usual trick of just hoping that the public will lose interest in the story is not working. This seems to be because the people here are totally fed up with corruption. On top of that press are relentlessly pursuing politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen under suspicion.

People in Kenya had become used to high level corruption after Daniel arap Moi's many years in power. In 2003, a coalition of all opposing political parties managed to win multi-party elections and appointed a new President, Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki promised to put an end to high level corruption.

However, it seems that change was not really on everyone's agenda as far as corruption went. The Anglo Leasing scandal, has claimed three Ministers' jobs already but many more people have been fingered in a report by former Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics, John Githongo. It goes all the way up to the now Vice President, Moody Awori. Numerous of senior civil servants are named too.

So, all this has been happening and now, all of a sudden, a newspaper and TV station are attacked by 'unknown' agents. The police say they don't know about the raid, the Ministry of information are claiming the same thing....
posted by davehat at 4:54 AM on March 2, 2006


If your country works like my country, they probably weren't told.
posted by flabdablet at 5:29 AM on March 2, 2006


I like that the location wasn't in the FPP. (Especially since "KTN" could conceivably be a western US station.) We should all be just as outraged as if it were here.
posted by TheWash at 5:32 AM on March 2, 2006


The government has confirmed that the agnets are their own; apparently the raids were meant to "safeguard state security," and three journalists are being held in police custody without charge. I never had much faith in him, but I am really disappointed in Kibaki.
posted by youarenothere at 5:41 AM on March 2, 2006


davehat writes "On top of that press are relentlessly pursuing politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen under suspicion."
TheWash writes "We should all be just as outraged as if it were here."

We should all be just as outraged that it isn't like this here - that the press here seems to not give enough of a shit to follow up on anything that might make their parent company uncomfortable.

Kenya needs help. I know people who do research there; to keep your animal-tracking equipment, you need to hire a guard to watch your stuff. To get into the country in the first place, you need to bribe the hell out of almost anyone you meet from the airport to the field site. Try finding creative ways to fit that into the budget section of your grant - I imagine it gets harder with each revision. At some point people start asking you what all these "miscellanous expenses" are.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:08 AM on March 2, 2006




This is disturbing--Kenya is generally touted as one of the "good" countries in Africa, but yet again, Bush has no interest in spreading democracy, only in protecting regimes that are friendly to the US.

(And for a second there, I thought the Weekly Standard had been raided--that would've been hilarious.)
posted by bardic at 9:35 AM on March 2, 2006


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