Kenyan journalists sleep in newsroom to avoid crackdown
A popular TV news anchor in Kenya says he and two other journalists were forced to spend the night in their newsroom to avoid arrest as a government crackdown on media continues for coverage of the opposition leader’s mock inauguration.
The government shut down the East African nation’s three leading TV stations when they tried to broadcast Tuesday’s ‘swearing-in’ of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who declared himself ‘the people’s president’ in protest of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election win last year.
I was in the control room producing @ntvkenya's coverage when we were switched off. I am stunned by the government's justification for this flagrant violation of our constitution.
If journalism is now outlawed in Kenya, I am ready to be investigated pic.twitter.com/iM6nd2HfBK— Larry Madowo, first of his name (@LarryMadowo) January 31, 2018
Larry Madowo, a news anchor with Nation Television, says multiple sources informed him and colleagues that undercover policemen were waiting in the parking lot outside their offices.
Madowo says the journalists decided to spend the night in the newsroom for security reasons.