Rattle a snake, get bit by a snake – Kenyan Censorship

KbcnewspapersAccording to the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation, the Kenyan government raided the offices of the newspaper the Standard. The government alleged some of the newspaper’s journalists were paid to run "fabricated" stories with the "intention to inciting ethnic hate and animosity leading to a breach of peace."

The BBC has more information, including a statement by Internal Security Minister John Michuki: "If you rattle a snake, you must be prepared to be bitten by it."
It seems likely the corruption was not of the journalists but of the government itself, according to the BBC. The claim by Information Minister Mutahi Kagwe of remaining "committed to the idel of press freedom and [the] promotion of responsible journalism" rings false by their actions.

Actions often speak far louder than words.

What type of development is possible under such a regime? The burning of newspapers just doesn’t portend good things in information sharing to raise all boats.

For more details see Kathryn Cramer here, Xeni here, and especially MentalAcrobatics here.

MentalAcrobatics has CCTV footage of the raid.

2 thoughts on “Rattle a snake, get bit by a snake – Kenyan Censorship

  1. Kibaki will be judged by what he has done, oops I take that back, I mean what he has not done as far as being leader of this country. He has proven time after time, incapable of taking control of any situation, let alone his own wife. I don’t understand how a man without control of his own backyard got to assume this high office we call the presidency. How he got to where he is amazes me, I’m even more amazed by the pain and conflict his incompetence cost our Nation. I believe our leadership is not representative of our national face and should be abolished. Indeed I am not promoting violence in any way, but freedom and national harmony must reign at all costs. Any forces against this means must be trampled without regard to who the oppressor is. In my opinion, what we need is a rebirth with a new face, new blood, young blood and a new beginning. The dogs have taken our country and it is time for the true patriots to steer us back on-course. Let us not sit and wait for 2007, action toward this new transformation begins today. Every Kenyan with a clean conscience can play a role; we can boycott state functions and leave them to the dogs, the civil service can seek mass action. Any entity in support of the current regime should be shunned and not patronized. We can all speak with one voice and send the dogs to their kennels where they belong.

  2. I find it inconceivable and foolhardy that:1. The President hasn’t still found it fit to comment
    on something supposedly touching on our national, and
    by extension, his own security.
    2. That Hon. Michuki expects to win back public
    opinion with his belated attempts to sell the new
    angle to this incident. The Tuesday protests, if
    allowed to proceed, could just be the turning point in
    this saga (unless something gives between now and
    then. I certainly expect some clergymen to counsel the
    nation to be “patient” this Sunday).
    Someone has sent me an e-mail concerning the current
    affairs in our country, which I now take the liberty
    to share with you and others:
    ******
    A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see
    the farmer and his wife open a package.
    “What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered –
    he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.
    Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the
    warning.
    “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a
    mousetrap in the house!”
    The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head
    and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave
    concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I
    cannot be bothered by it.”
    The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is
    a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the
    house!”
    The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry,
    Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but
    pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”
    The mouse turned to the cow and said “There is a
    mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the
    house!”
    The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but
    it’s no skin off my nose.”
    So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and
    dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone.
    That very night a sound was heard throughout the
    house — like the sound of a mousetrap catching its
    prey.
    The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In
    the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake
    whose tail the trap had caught.
    The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her
    to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.
    Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken
    soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard
    for the soup’s main ingredient.
    But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and
    neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.
    To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
    The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many
    people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow
    slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
    The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the
    wall with great sadness.
    So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem
    and think it doesn’t concern you…., remember
    — when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
    We are all involved in this journey called life. We
    must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra
    effort to encourage one another.

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