NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 2 – Kenya joined the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists (IDEI), with calls to enhance the protection of journalists who are facing persecution and numerous other hindrances to their work, including intimidation, harassment, torture and death in extreme cases.
Journalists for Human Rights (JHR)’s Team Lead Mustapha Dumbuya said many journalists were unable to perform their duty freely due to the continued harassment and intimidation in what constitutes human rights violations.
“Journalists across the world continue to be persecuted for doing their work,” he said, citing Eastern Africa where the persecutions are diverse.
“In this region, the persecutions range from from intimidation, harassment, torture and in extreme cases paying the ultimate price of death for practising journalism which is anchored on fundamental human rights to freedom of expression,” Mustapha said after attending a conference by the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) in commemoration of the international day to end impunity against journalists.
He told Capital FM in an interview that COVID-19 has, particularly, exacerbated the suffering of journalists, with many have lost their livelihoods due to mass layoffs as media in Kenya strife to cut expenses after reduced advertisements which is their major source of revenue.
This, Mustapha said, has led to increased cases of mental health issues for many journalists who are out of their jobs and even those practicing but are unsure of their job security.
“While everyone is affected by the violence perpetrated against journalists, women become double victims by loss of jobs and sexual and gender-based violence,” he said and called on the state to end impunity against journalists by condemning such incidents while advocating for prosecution of perpetrators.
Mustapha has also urged media managers to uphold and respect labour laws that protect journalists like any other workers who must be treated with dignity.
“Newsrooms should adopt and implement inclusive policies to ensure that the workplace is safe for all,” he said.
JHR’s Gender Lead Winnie Syombua too weighed and condemned increased abuses against journalists, particularly women at work places.
She said lack of proper internal policies in individual media houses to address cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and other related violations was a major contributing factor in increased cases.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, most women have suffered and others have lost their jobs due to layoffs.
“It is so unfortunate because women are always an easy target when it comes to such sackings, and we have seen many targeted for very flimsy excuses,” she said.
“This is a perpetration of the violation by the same people who are supposed to uphold and protect human rights,” she said.
And despite the high cost of living across the country that has been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, media houses continue to pay journalists poorly, in what Winny said contributes to journalists ending up using unconventional means to fend for themselves.
“Journalists are paid poorly despite the high cost of living and this has led some of them to unscrupulous means of looking for money and again this is a violation of their rights,” she said, “these are some of the things we are saying must end because the continued impunity is in itself a rights violation.”
To end the violations, Syombua advocates for the creation of internal policies that will guarantee a fair working environment for all.
She also urged the government and all organs of the state to always take serious issues and violations against journalists for impunity to end in the country.
“The government remains a culprit in the violations because we have often see the police and other state organs used to intimidate journalists in the course of their work, particularly investigative journalists,” she said, “There is a lot of suppression and the Constitution that guarantees these freedoms is never adhered to. The government need to do a lot to protect journalists.
She cited the disappearance of journalist and blogger Bosire Bogonko who went missing in September 2013 with little or no effort demonstrated todate, by the government in tracing him.
Bosire’s disappearance was linked to his work as a journalist and blogger who wrote articles heavily critical of the establishment.
“Todate, no one knows where Bogonko is,” she said, citing another case in Tanzania where local journalist Erick Kabendera was detained for seven months in 2019 and eventually forced to plead to fabricated charges which he pleaded to just to secure his freedom.
He was eventually freed on a plea-bargaining agreement.
“As a human rights advocate, I am very passionate about having everyone’s rights protected because any violation is a crime that is punishable by law,” she said.
Recent studies have shown that despite the progress made by the Kenyan media on digital evolution, journalists in the country are highly discredited, assaulted, harrassed and even intimidated in their day to day work with little done by the government to protect them.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji who spoke at the Media Council of Kenya event to commemorate the international day to end impunity on crimes against journalists urged the media and journalists to always remain firm in their work and always seek the truth.
“Above all, keep working to ensure you uphold integrity in your profession even when the truth may be at odds with the powers that be; be it government or even the ownership of the media houses you represent; keep seeking out the truth and speaking this truth to power,” Haji said.
Media Council of Kenya Chairman Maina Muiruri said gaps in the operationalisation of the National Mechanism for Safety and Protection of Journalists, including lack of investigations of cases of impunity against journalists is to blame for non-prosecution of perpetrators.
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