Kenya: First lady storms into newsroom, harasses staff, assaults cameraman

IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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ALERT - KENYA

6 May 2005

Kenyan first lady storms into newsroom, harasses staff, assaults cameraman

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has expressed shock over the abuse of authority displayed
by the wives of President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and President Olusegun
Obasanjo of Nigeria in assailing and imprisoning journalists in separate
incidents on 2 May 2005, in response to critical press reports.

"We are stunned that the presidents' wives went so far just to seek personal
revenge. We therefore call on [Kenyan First Lady] Lucy Kibaki to apologise
to the cameraman she hit, and we call on [Nigerian First Lady] Stella
Obasanjo to have the 'Midwest Herald''s publisher released from prison
immediately, as such meddling harms the image of their respective
countries," RSF said.

In Nairobi, Kibaki went to the premises of the Nation Media Group, Kenya's
largest press group, shortly before midnight on 2 May with six bodyguards
and Nairobi Police Chief Kingori Mwangi. They spent five hours in the
offices of the daily "The Nation", complaining about "unfair" reports.
Uttering insults, she had all of the journalists' cameras, notebooks and
mobile phones confiscated and swore that she would not leave until the
authors of the offending articles were arrested.

Kibaki also assaulted Kenya Television Network cameraman Clifford Derrick,
who had been filming the scene. She slapped him and tried unsuccessfully to
take his camera from him.

In their 2 May editions, several newspapers, including "The Nation" and "The
Standard", had reported that Kibaki had tried to put a stop to a farewell
party for Makhtar Diop, the World Bank's representative in Kenya, on the
night of 29 April, because of noise that was coming from the party.

A report entitled, "Shame of First Lady", published in "The Standard", a
rival of "The Nation", said that after failing to get the party stopped,
Kibaki went personally to the Muthaiga police station to file a complaint
against Diop. The report described her as being "lightly attired" at the
time.

In a separate incident in Nigeria, Omo-Ojo Orobosa, the publisher of the
Lagos-based "Midwest Herald", was arrested on First Lady Obasanjo's orders
when security forces, led by Inspector Sunday Owolabi, of the Ondo state
police department, burst into the newspaper's office at 10:30 a.m. (local
time) on 2 May and occupied it for one hour, until Orobosa was taken to
Akure prison. His arrest was prompted by an article about the first lady
entitled, "Greedy Stella" (see IFEX alert of 5 May 2005)

Meanwhile, President Obasanjo, who is also the current African Union
chairman, went to Dakar to attend a UNESCO summit on 3 May, World Press
Freedom Day.

For further information, contact Léonard Vincent at RSF, 5, rue Geoffroy
Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51,
e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.rsf.org

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of RSF.
In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit RSF.
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