Church leaders have urged President Kibaki not to give assent to the Kenya Communication (Amendment) Bill 2008.
Instead, the leaders, under the National Council of Churches of Kenya,
called on President Kibaki to refer the Bill back to Parliament to
facilitate deletion of the offending sections.
NCCK secretary-general Rev Peter Karanja warned: If President Kibaki
signs it to become law, it will be a sad for Kenya after all the
clamour from the civil society, churches and people in general.
However, Rev Karanja who first read a prepared statement said he is confident that President Kibaki will not sign it.
He read the statement at a press conference in his office at Jumuia
Place in Nairobi, which he and chairman Dr Charles Kibicho had signed.
In the statement, the NCCK said: The Bill portrays the media as the
problem in Kenya whereas everyone knows it is our politicians whose
recklessness and selfishness is tearing our nation apart.
They added: What Kenyans would like to see is parliamentarians respect freedom of speech of other actors.
The church leaders urged politicians to raise the standards of political engagements and activity.
They should be focusing on resolving the problems facing Kenyans such
as high food prices, inflation, fuel and energy crises, and poverty,
the leaders continued to in the statement, which was entitled, Listen
to All Kenyans.
Head of the Catholic Church Cardinal John Njue had on the previous day
defended freedom of the media although he said he is yet to read the
Bill since he has been away.
Several leaders as well as media owners, editors and other journalists
together with civil society activists have also spoken against passing
of the Bill.
The Bill was passed by Parliament last Wednesday.
During the NCCK press conference Rev Karanja said Section 88 of the
Bill, which gives powers to the Internal Security minister and his
Communication counterpart are dealt with under Section 85 of the
Constitution and Section 4 of the Preservation of Public Security Act.
In these two sections, these powers are exercised by the President of the Republic of Kenya, the statement said.
The offending section gives Internal Security minister powers to raid a
media house and confiscate equipment during emergencies while his
Communication counterpart has the right to say what programmes should
or should not be broadcasted.
Since Section 85 of the Constitution and Section 4 of the Preservation
of Public Security Act deals with emergencies, the church leaders said
Section 88 of the Bill should be deleted.
The church leaders also noted that proposed section 46H of the Bill
gives censorship powers to the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK).
CCK, they further noted, is supposed to receive policy guidelines from
the Communication Minister as provided for in the proposed Section 5A.
These powers, NCCK said negates the clamour by Kenyans for serious checks and balances on the Executive.
We propose that such provisions be integrated within the mandate of
the Censorship Board already established under the Films and Stage
Plays Act and be exercised in consultations with the CCK, the
statement continued to say.
Before the Bill was brought before Parliament, the church leaders observed that it had been presented to the public for debate.
And they expressed concern that the Government had demonstrated an
unwillingness to listen to what Kenyans had to say about the Bill.
This arrogance and failure to listen to other people on multiple
issues is undermining the ownership by Kenyans of processes engaged in
by the Government on their behalf, they said.
While answering questions from journalists, Rev Karanja wondered how
the Bill passed while there are some MPs who have in the past been in
the forefront fighting for the freedom of the press.
He asked: Have they been caught up in the same cancer of eating that Kenyans are involved in?
He reminded that Kenyans are watching them keenly.
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