CS Joe Mucheru’s warning to media houses repugnant

CS Joe Mucheru

Information Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru is a man out of touch with reality. He is living in the past. Perhaps in his eagerness to please the powers that be, he is threatening to shutdown media houses that will announce election results when Kenyans elect their leaders on Tuesday next week.

For the benefit of the CS, there is a thin line between announcing and declaring results. What would be the point of allowing media houses to tally results and more importantly, isn’t tallying about arriving at a specific figure which then the public has the right to know?

It has never been in dispute that the onus of announcing final results and electoral outcomes is the sole responsibility of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. Traditionally, even as the Constitution guarantees citizens the right to information, the media has over the years kept the public abreast of developments in the field whenever elections are held without the risk of usurping the electoral agency’s powers. That will not end at the whims of an individual.

Mucheru’s warning to media houses is repugnant and retrogressive. It attempts to denigrate the Constitution to which all Kenyans are beholden.

Mucheru’s threat will be met by the contempt it deserves from right-thinking Kenyans who have come to trust the media more than the ruling elite. Media freedom and the right to inform the public are not negotiable.

 

• Mucheru threatened to shutdown media houses that will announce election results
• There is a thin line between announcing and declaring results

  Mucheru’s warning to media houses repugnant

  Information Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru is a man out of touch with reality. He is living in the past. Perhaps in his eagerness to please the powers that be, he is threatening to shutdown media houses that will announce election results when Kenyans elect their leaders on Tuesday next week.

  For the benefit of the CS, there is a thin line between announcing and declaring results. What would be the point of allowing media houses to tally results and more importantly, isn’t tallying about arriving at a specific figure which then the public has the right to know?

  It has never been in dispute that the onus of announcing final results and electoral outcomes is the sole responsibility of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. Traditionally, even as the Constitution guarantees citizens the right to information, the media has over the years kept the public abreast of developments in the field whenever elections are held without the risk of usurping the electoral agency’s powers. That will not end at the whims of an individual.

  Mucheru’s warning to media houses is repugnant and retrogressive. It attempts to denigrate the Constitution to which all Kenyans are beholden.Mucheru’s threat will be met by the contempt it deserves from right-thinking Kenyans who have come to trust the media more than the ruling elite. Media freedom and the right to inform the public are not negotiable.