State accused of denying media and public information

Journalists at a past event. [File, Standard]

The media and public have been unable to access information due to failure by the government to honour constitutional provisions.

Media stakeholders heard that secrecy by the State has also contributed to denying Kenyans information that they are entitled to, especially when journalists request access to it.

These details emerged on Friday during an event organised by Media Council of Kenya and Katiba Institute on International Day on Universal Access to Information.

The meeting was held under the theme, “Mainstreaming Access to Information and Participation in the Public Sector,” which also serves as a reminder that the right of access to information is a fundamental right that plays a critical role in creating open, inclusive and transparent governance systems in the world.

Mercy Wambua, Commission Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of Commission on Administrative Justice (Office of the Ombudsman), recommended the need to support the main streaming of access to information and public participation in the public sector.

Nzioka said public institutions have been able to embrace access to information, but then much of this is driven by institutional needs after sampling their customers.

“Some of the access to information and information disclosures for public institutions is likely being seen as the need for them to give information to their stakeholders as opposed to having this as a rights based approach,” he said.

He said there is need to elevate the discussion for public institutions so that they have a clear understanding on what is required of them to implement access to information from a rights-based perspective.

Nzioka said most institutions are giving information about who they are and leaving out critical information, which is very important to enable the citizen to be an active stakeholder in public participation.

He also disclosed that when they audited institutions’ websites, they saw that most of those documents on institutional websites are inferior, which in a way talks about issues of accessibility, even for persons living with disabilities, because that information is not machine readable and causing a lot of challenges in terms of accessibility.

On secrecy, Dinah Ondari, manager, press freedom, safety and advocacy at Media Council of Kenya said the government should provide the necessary information requested to save Kenyans from being fed on fake news from social media and other untrusted sources.

“There is no journalism without information. That tells you that the centrality of information in the work that the media does, and therefore if you want to be, to continue, because research and studies have shown that the media is the most trusted institution around,” said Ms Ondari.

She added: “So if you want to continue to be the most trusted in an area where misinformation, malinformation and disinformation is the order of the day, it means that you have to have the right tools and the right information, the right data to do your work, because your business is to give out information, information that is true, that is accurate, that is comprehensive, that can be trusted.”

She said MCK believes that access to information is closely tied to the issue of the freedom of the media to do its work.

“Because if you do not give access or if you interfere with the capacity of a journalist to get information to do their work, it means that you are interfering with their right to do their work, which is contrary to Article 34 of the Constitution and Article 35 of the Constitution.”

She said MCK consider information as one of the privileges that the journalists hold, because they accredit journalists, which gives them access to places where the common citizen cannot go.

“Which means that this person can get privileged information that the citizen doesn’t have, and thus journalists act as an intermediary between public officers and custodians of information and citizens and so they have a critical role to play in advancing the right of citizens to get information.”