Madowo, Mijungu, Kaikai Haunt Matiang'i Over 2018 TV Shutdown

Former Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Fred Matiang'i spearheaded the shutdown of three local TV stations Citizen TV, NTV, and KTN in the aftermath of the controversial swearing-in of former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, as the people's president in 2018.

One day and five years later, this ordeal came back to torment him when Citizen TV Editorial Director, Linus Kaikai, CNN International correspondent Larry Madowo and KTN News anchor Ken Mijungu each gave their accounts of the ordeal which occurred when all three of them were at the Nation Media Group (NMG).

Kaikai gave his account of the matter on Thursday, February 9 during the Newsgang show where, alongside his colleagues, were discussing the recent alleged raid on Matiang'i's home in Karen when Kaikai took a trip down memory lane into one of the darkest times in the country's media industry when Matiang'i ordered the three stations, alongside Inooro TV, to be taken off-air.

"If you read our politics, this is becoming a post-election ritual. If you remember this night about five years ago, all television stations were off-air...courtesy of Fred Matiang'i, who was then the Interior Cabinet Secretary, who after the controversial swearing-in of Raila Odinga at Uhuru Park on January 29, then decided that television stations should not be on," he recounted.

While opining of a similar pattern that would be likely to occur, the experienced journalist also revisited cases where, under Matiang'i's reign, police officers broke into lawyer Miguna Miguna's home prior to his deportation to Canada, among the instances police have been used as a 'mini-militia' during the electioneering period.

Kaikai then took a jab at Matiang'i's past criticism of anticipatory bail, which he was a beneficiary of on Thursday when he himself had allegedly objected to the move allowing the journalists to seek anticipatory bail.

"I was a beneficiary of anticipatory bail courtesy of Fred Matiang'i...we were beneficiaries of anticipatory bail in 2018 February...around this time, five years ago and because we don't wear the same shoes, that was something we had to deal with, myself, my colleagues Larry Madowo and Ken Mijungu because we had received very credible information that the policemen who at the time camping at Miguna's and Jimi Wanjigi's and David Ndii's were also targeting us.

"The proof was in walking out of Nation Centre. If you want those photos it required us to walk out there and actually get ourselves arrested, of course starting with the lightest which was Larry Madowo," he added.

On Friday, February 10, Madowo gave his own account of seeking anticipatory bail, a term he was not familiar with then.

"After we got anticipatory bail 5 years ago. I didn’t even know that was a thing before we needed it. Kenyan Interior minister at the time, Dr Fred Matiang’i, had shut down the country’s top TV stations days earlier.

"It was a wild time. Someday I’ll write about it with receipts. But that day is not today," he stated, sharing photos of him, Kaikai and Mijungu addressing the press outside the court in 2018 in a seeming jibe at Matiang'i.

Mijungu on his part recalled how he and his colleagues were forced to take shelter at NMG offices along Kimathi Street, sharing a past photo of beddings the trio had spread on the floor to spend nights, to hide from the authorities during the shutdown.

"It has been five years since we slept under the table at Nation FM and ran away from former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government after NTV adamantly broadcasted what they did not want. A safe house here and there, we later landed in court," he wrote.

The TV stations served as the main source of news for the entire country, particularly the urban areas, and their shutdown in 2018 by the Communications Authority of Kenya sparked outrage amongst Kenyan journalists who called for respect of the constitution and an end to the unprecedented media clampdown. Some journalists were apprehended during the ordeal.

Defending the decision, the then information Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru argued that it was a matter of national security, which came days after the 2017 general elections.

The media was mentioned during the release of the findings of the investigations carried out on the alleged police raid by Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss, Mohamed Amin, when it was alerted by Raila's team on the raid on Matiang'i's house.