Do you think the new NTSA rules are legit without a law also taming police officers in bribery? Motorists have often complained of extortion by traffic officers an issue that has never properly been addressed leaving our security at the mercy of corruption
In police drama,a journalist has narrated the sad ordeal whereby officers accosted him while he was recording an incident revealing the officers were demanding a bribe from a boda boda operator who had flouted the motorbikes ban in Nairobi’s CBD.
Mr. Kimani could however not authenticate the identification from the officers but says they were not police officers.
Mr. Kimani who had already identified himself as a journalist then insisted that he be taken to Central Police station if he was indeed under arrest, but the county officers ignored.
“It’s unfortunate what happened and what has been happening, I was recording the incident using my phone as I awaited the cameraman. An officer roughed me up and and took me to Fire Station offices where I received several slaps and had my head banged against the wall,” he said
“The officers realised they could get into trouble and released me but after forcing me to delete all the pictures and video I had recorded,” Mr. Kimani recalled.
A while back Journalists from several media houses had stationed themselves at the airport Monday afternoon to report on the standoff between opposition politician Miguna Miguna and immigration officials who disputed his right to enter the country, according to media reports .
Shortly before midnight, officers began to verbally and physically harass the journalists reporting outside an international arrivals terminal while ordering them to leave, according to media reports and video footage.
Two journalists, Stephen Letoo, a political reporter with the privately owned Citizen TV network, and Robert Gichira, a cameraman with the privately owned Nation TV channel, told CPJ that they were beaten by police.
The Media Council of Kenya also condemned an incident in which a Standard journalist James Omoro was attacked by a police officer in Homa Bay county as he covered chaos at the County Assembly sparked by leadership wrangles. His camera was confiscated and extensively vandalized.
MCK CEO David Omwoyo, in a statement, said the action by police is not only an affront to press freedom, protected under Article 34 of the Constitution of Kenya but violates the right to safety of journalists as articulated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 Paragraph 2 of the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights.
The Article stipulates that it is mandatory for each state to ensure a safe and enabling environment for journalists in the performance of their Public Interest Duty independently and without any interference.