President to reject media Bill, says Ruto

 

In Summary

The downside is that there is the small matter of what to do with new media ‘assassins,’” he said.

Addis Ababa.President Kenyatta will refer the controversial media Bill back to Parliament in the clearest signal yet that contentious clauses in the proposed law would be struck down.
“We admit the Bill is contentious. Discussions are underway to resolve issues,” Deputy President William Ruto said in Addis Ababa yesterday. “The President has undertaken to refer the Bill back to Parliament so that these matters can be ironed out,” Mr Ruto said. He was addressing the African Media Leaders Forum, the largest industry gathering of the continent’s media.
Kenya’s National Assembly last week passed the controversial Kenya Information and Communications (Amendment) Bill that has attracted widespread condemnation.
Less than a tenth of the country’s legislators were present when it was passed and the Bill is now before President Kenyatta, who is under intense pressure not to sign it into law.
The Bill imposes heavy fines on media houses and journalists who fall foul of its provisions. It also proposes the setting up of a tribunal with powers to suspend or deregister journalists it deems to have erred. The President can send the Bill back to Parliament for amendment, although a two-third majority decision in Parliament can override this.
Mr Ruto said the country had the most robust Bill of Rights, and that everything would be done to protect it. “Repression in Kenya is simply not possible,” he said, adding that the relationship between the government and media need not be adversarial. “Freedom of expression and freedom of the media does have its challenges, but given out history, we do not see an alternative (to strengthening it),” he said.
The DP called on the African media to tell its own story as it was best placed to do so.
Social media also represented a glorious opportunity for the African media to tell the continent’s story, he said.
“The downside is that there is the small matter of what to do with new media ‘assassins,’” he said.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
The Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution has said several clauses of the Bill are out of tune with the country’s supreme law. Articles 33(1) and 34 (1 and 2) of the Constitution safeguard media freedom and the dissemination of information.
“We are of the opinion that the Bill contains provisions, which are unconstitutional and if enacted in its current state, will inadvertently erode the gains made in the Constitution to ensure freedom of the media,” CIC chairman Charles Nyachae was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, the Kenya Correspondents Association and Kenya Editors Guild have called on journalists to be steadfast in challenging the “oppressive” Bill.
In a statement, KCA chairman William Janak and Editors Guild vice-chairman David Ohito said journalists “would resist attempts by the Kenyan leadership to portray them negatively just because they had continuously and without fear, pointed out ills bedevilling the country and for demanding accountability.”
“This is the time to show the Government, Kenyan leaders and Members of the National Assembly that the media should not be treated with the casualness and disdain, which is now being entrenched into law with the aim of intimidating us into silence,” Mr Janak said.