Kenya / Africa

  
Joel Eshikumo has been threatened repeatedly over photographs he took in court. (Joel Eshikumo)

Journalist in western Kenya faces death threats

New York, May 10, 2012–Kenyan authorities must immediately investigate recent death threats against a Kenyan journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Local businessman Armstrong Pino allegedly threatened Joel Eshikumo, a reporter for the Weekly Citizen and a political columnist for the weekly Western Times, in public on Saturday over photographs the journalist had…

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CCTV's East Africa operations are headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. (CCTV)

China’s media footprint in Kenya

Will China’s quickly expanding media presence in Africa result in a fresh, alternative, and balanced perspective on the continent–much as Al-Jazeera altered the broadcast landscape with the launch of its English service in 2006–or will it be essentially an exercise in propaganda?

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Two Kenyan journalists threatened for their reporting

New York, April 13, 2012–Kenyan authorities must investigate threats made against two journalists who covered a police raid on a supermarket, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. One of the journalists was also threatened in relation to another story he published.

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Journalist Suleiman Mbatiah is escorted to the police station where he was detained for almost nine hours. (Courtesy News 24)

Kenyan police assault three journalists, detain one

New York, March 21, 2012–Kenyan authorities should hold responsible police officers who assaulted three reporters last week and drop a baseless legal case against one of them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Hassan Mohamed in 2011 (CPJ)

Exiled Somali journalist Hassan Mohamed dies in Nairobi

Veteran Somali radio journalist Hassan Mohamed, 45, died early yesterday morning in Eastleigh, a Nairobi suburb. He had fled Mogadishu in 2010, having been threatened, kidnapped, and shot twice. One of hundreds of Somali refugees in Kenya, many of them journalists, Hassan struggled to support himself and survive worsening diabetes-related ailments, despite relentless support from…

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Lamu town on Lamu island, which will be home to a major port project. (Lamu Studios)

The hazards of reporting all sides of the Lamu port story

Freelance photographer Abdalla Bargash had accompanied Kenya’s permanent secretary for transport, Cyrus Njiru, to cover a meeting with Lamu community members over the newly constructed Lamu port. The Kililana Farmers’ Association are concerned that the major construction on the once-sleepy island of Lamu off Kenya’s coast could encroach on their farmland. 

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Kenyan police are accused of widespread extrajudicial killings, including the murder of reporter Francis Nyaruri. (AFP/Tony Karumba)

Attacks on the Press in 2011: Killing, Coverup in Kenya

It is not too late for justice for Francis Nyaruri, who was killed in 2009 after he wrote a story on police corruption. The murder comes against a backdrop of widespread extrajudicial killing. By Tom Rhodes with reporting from Clifford Derrick

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CPJ

In Nairobi, plans to improve aid to exiled journalists

Kassahun Yilma left Ethiopia quickly in December 2009. He didn’t have time to save money for the journey, choose a place to go, arrange housing or a job. He left his wife, his mother, his house and all his friends behind. Yilma didn’t know what lay ahead. He only knew that if he stayed, he…

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Kenyan journalist Robert Wanyonyi is being threatened for his coverage of a confrontation between villagers and police. (Robert Wanyonyi)

Kenyan journalist threatened for his reporting

New York, December 9, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the safety of Kenyan reporter Robert Wanyonyi who has been repeatedly threatened after covering a melee between police and local villagers that left as many as seven people dead. 

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From left, Francis Nyaruri's father, Peter Nyaruri; Peter's wife; the journalist's widow, Josephine Kwamboka; and his sister (CPJ)

Glimmer of hope for justice in Kenyan death

Slain journalist Francis Nyaruri received threatening calls from a senior policeman shortly before he disappeared and his decapitated body was found in Kodera forest, western Kenya, a court sitting in Kisumu heard today in the presence of two murder suspects and four witnesses.

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