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Kenya court suspends shutdown of TV stations

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A high court in Kenya has suspended the government’s shutdown of four TV Stations pending a full hearing.

The court has also ordered the government not to interfere with the operations of the media houses which were switched off during the mock swearing-in ceremony of opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Meanwhile, police on Wednesday arrested an opposition Member of Parliament who administered the oath. He was due to appear in court on Thursday.

Odinga who boycotted the rerun of presidential polls in October swore himself in as the people’s president on Tuesday at an event attended by thousands of his supporters in Nairobi.

It is the third day since Odinga took his oath as the people’s president. Four TV stations owned by the country’s three major media houses remained off air. The Interior Security Minister says the crackdown is justified.

“We have commenced….the media houses will remain switched off until the investigations are complete,” said Minister Fred Matiang’i.

However, human rights activists disagree.

“The state decided to not only seek to control editorial content for broadcast, but went ahead to shut down the stations,” said Executive Director of Article 19, Henry Maina.

TJ Kajwang, a lawyer and opposition Member of Parliament who is said to have administered the oath, was due to face charges of illegal assembly and administering an illegal oath.

President Uhuru Kenyatta who took the oath of office for his second and final term has not made any public comment on Odinga’s alternative swearing in.

 

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