Kenya: International Press Institute Condemns Assault On Journalist

12 January 2001
International Press Institute (Vienna)
press release

Nairobi — According to the information before IPI, Betty Dindi, a journalist with Nation TV, was beaten by police on 30 December 2000. Dindi was attacked by a group of police officers in Kiambu District while covering clashes that erupted when police dispersed a meeting organised by shareholders of the Mbo-I-Kamiti Farmers Company. Police chased Dindi into a nearby coffee plantation and started to beat her repeatedly. Dindi was later taken to a Nairobi hospital as a result of the injuries she sustained during the attack.

IPI is deeply concerned that Dindi appears to have been targeted because she was a journalist. Before she was assaulted, Dindi was warned by one of the police officers that she would be beaten up. One officer also threatened to kill her.

The assault on Dindi is part of a worrying pattern of physical violence by police directed at Kenyan journalists in general and journalists with the Nation Media Group in particular. On 9 May 2000, while photographing the arrest of several individuals, journalist Victor Nzuma was assaulted by police. Nzuma, a journalist working for The Nation newspaper, was attacked and had his camera destroyed. In November, Jackson Orina, a journalist for the Nation Media Group, was attacked by police in Kitale. On 10 December, two correspondents with The Nation, Allan Odhiambo and Baraka Karama, were attacked by police while covering a political rally in Busia.

Attacks like these are a flagrant violation of everyone's right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers" as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to being deplorable and unacceptable, such acts are also detrimental to the functioning of any democracy.

Therefore, IPI urges Your Excellency to do everything in your power to ensure that there is a thorough investigation into the attack on Dindi and that those responsible are brought swiftly to justice. Moreover, we urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that journalists are allowed to report freely on developments in Kenya without fear of being assaulted.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz Director

International Press Institute (IPI) Spiegelgasse 2/29 A-1010 Vienna Austria Tel: + 43-1-512 90 11 Fax: +43-1-512 90 14 E-mail: ipi@freemedia.at http://www.freemedia.at

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