Media rights campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday condemned the assault of eight journalists, two of them working for AFP, sent to cover an opposition rally in Kenya.
Violence broke out on Sunday ahead of a rally in Homa Bay, in the country’s southwest, by opposition movement Linda Mwananchi, which is seeking to oust President William Ruto in elections due next year.According to RSF, at least eight journalists were assaulted and media vehicles vandalised, both before and during the rally.
Both were severely beaten and some of their equipment, money, and identity papers were stolen.
Journalists from the Kenyan Standard Group, Mediamax Network, and Royal Media Services were also attacked.
“Less than a year before the general elections, RSF is extremely concerned by the attacks against these journalists, who were assaulted and prevented from doing their jobs,” RSF’s Jeanne Lagarde said in a statement.
“This hostility towards the media is incompatible with a free election.”
Opposition leaders have denounced an increasingly hostile climate, and observers are warning about the growing use, by all sides, of armed thugs — known as “goons” in Kenya — to disrupt rivals’ political rallies or provide protection.
jcp/pdw/rh
