[Kenya was always held up as an example of a successful African country. But in the last few years it has been going from bad to worse. And yet, at one time, Kenya was not unlike Rhodesia or South Africa. There used to be a large number of whites there including, would you believe AFRIKANERS! And those whites pulled out of there more than 40 years ago. But Kenya these days is going from bad to worse. It is becoming just another failed black state. Jan]

Thousands of Kenyans took to the streets of Nairobi and four major towns yesterday in an emotive defence of Press freedom following the shocking raid of Standard Group’s premises by hooded police commandos.

Led by Orange Democratic Movement leaders, they spilled into the streets of Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, Kisumu and Nakuru, to demand the resignation of Security minister John Michuki and his Information and Communications counterpart, Mutahi Kagwe.

In one of the country’s most peaceful and incident-free public demonstrations, the leaders, who included former ministers Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, set the pace for the public protest, walking in the first column with hands locked in a show of solidarity. The leaders demanded that President Kibaki immediately issue a statement on the raid on the Standard and KTN.

Michuki was the favourite of caricature drawers. A drawing of his head hooked onto a slithering beaded snake’s body featured on some of the placards the demonstrators carried.

He was sucked into the swirling wave of condemnation by his use of an analogy of the snake to justify the early Thursday morning raid at the KTN newsroom at I&M Building and the Standard Newspapers printing plant on Likoni Road.

“If you want to rattle a snake, you must be prepared to be bitten by it,” he told journalists on Thursday when asked what triggered the night raid at the Standard Group premises.

The raid, which the Government tried to justify on security grounds, has been widely condemned both locally and internationally, culminating in yesterday’s countrywide protests.

“Today we shall be having a peaceful demonstration. We do not want any destruction. Nairobi Police boss Mwangi King’ori today is with us,” said Raila, while kicking off the protest at Uhuru Park where President Kibaki took the oath of office while ringed by some of the leaders at the venue, who have since fallen out with him.

The demonstrators stopped at the Teleposta Towers where Kagwe sits and Harambee House, which houses Michuki’s office. With song and dance, they expressed their anger at the two ministers.

Waving placards with messages condemning the Government, the protesters called on the President to sack Michuki for his actions. “Hitler burnt the newspapers . then the Jews,” screamed one placards while another said: “Press freedom is beyond a snake bite.”

Another placard read: “Snap elections not snake elections.”

In Kisumu the demonstrators killed a snake and dangled it in the streets to demonstrate what they would do with a “rattled snake that bites.”

The demonstrators gathered by 9am at Uhuru Park where some of them were preparing their creative works of art in preparation for the “freedom march”.

Those who mounted the podium to condemn the raid, its planners and the desecration of press freedom, were Kanu secretary general William Ruto, former Vice President Musalia Mudavadi, and former ministers William ole Ntimama and Linah Jebii Kilimo. Several MPs also spoke.

The leaders gave the two ministers a week to resign or for the President to sack them, failing which Kenyans would take “action”.

“Life will not be the same for the ministers after the demonstration. It will not go back to normal,” Kalonzo said.

He said MPs in ODM would meet in Parliament in a week to review their position if the two ministers would still be in office. The Mwingi North MP suggested that every March 7 be celebrated as Free Media Day in Kenya.

Raila maintained that the Government used foreign mercenaries to carry out the raid. He equated the raid on the Standard to the 1972 Munich Olympic terrorist attack where several Israeli athletes were killed.

He wondered why foreigners were used in the raid. “Michuki owes Kenyans an apology,” he said. The mercenaries, he said, were living at a city hotel before they were moved after the Standard traced their footsteps to a barbershop and restaurant in Highridge and Hurlingham area.

Raila said they were still under the protection of the General Service Unit (GSU). “They are using government vehicles and are being given GSU protection,” he added.

Ntimama said Michuki planned the raid with a State House-official and the Director of CID Mr Joseph Kamau, who is currently embroiled in turf wars with Police Commissioner Hussein Ali. The police chief wants him removed because he executed the raid behind his back.

Former minister Ochilo Ayacko said the President had slept on the job “since he is not defending the rights of the ordinary Kenyans and the media as he pledged in his campaigns”.

Kanu Nominated MP Mutula Kilonzo said that by allowing an illegal raid, the President had failed to stand for a Constitution he swore to defend.

Mudavadi said there was a threat of Government trampling on the freedom of worship once it was through with muzzling the press. He cautioned Kenyans not to let the Government deny them their constitutionally guaranteed rights. “In a civilised nation the worst thing that can happen is to have parallel chains of command,” he said while commenting sidestepping of the Police Commissioner.

Mbita MP Otieno Kajwang’ lay the blame on the President, saying that if he did not sanction the operation, then he must “sack and jail” Michuki. “The rights and freedom of speech and the press is not a government’s favour to the people. This is a right and Kenyans fought for it,” said Ruto adding that the Government must be guided by the rule by the Law.

Chanting slogans in support of the media and castigating the Government for the raid, the protesters walked along city streets and then to Uhuru Park with stops at the two minister’s offices.

“Michuki must go! Michuki must go! Kagwe must go! We don’t want a snake government,” chanted the protesters as they marched in the city streets.

Traffic police officers guided vehicles along the streets as their colleagues in full riot gear put human barriers along other streets to prevent demonstrators from venturing off the predetermined route.

At Vigilance House, police officers in riot gear literally put up a human shield around the steel fence. Others patrolled the area around Parliament Building on trucks, foot and even horseback.

Other leaders who who took part in the protest were MPs Omingo Magara, Nick Salat, Fred Gumo, Kiema Kilonzo, George Khaniri, Billow Kerrow, Henry Kosgey, Joseph Nkaissery, Gideon Ndambuki, and Prof Anyang Nyong’o, among others.

During the commando attack conducted with the help of the four foreigners recruited as bodyguards by an influential Narc woman activist, the raiders torched the day’s newspapers, and carted away vital equipment such as computers and UPSs. They also switched off KTN, the Standard Group’s 24 hour television station, for at least 12 hours.

The raid drew public condemnation from politicians, lobbyists and representatives of foreign missions in the country. Police spokesman Jasper Ombati, admitted that the Government was behind the raid.

Source: AllAfrica.Com
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200603070761.htm…/p>