President Uhuru Kenyatta during his interview with CNN told the world that January’s shutdown of local TV stations which lasted for at least a week was only for a day.
The interview which aired on Friday, President Kenyatta maintained the stations were shut only on January 30, the day of ODM leader Raila Odinga’s mock 'swearing-in'.
“They were shut down on a single day when Raila Odinga went and had purported to swear himself in as president of the Republic of Kenya,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“That was the only day. You can do your homework and check: the only day that they were shut down,” he added.
[caption caption="Tv station off air"]
[/caption]
President Kenyatta's remarks came after Amanpour questioned the legality of a number of government actions around last year’s General Election.
He insisted that the shutdown was the doing of the TV stations because they had earlier promised not to air the event.
“Them agreeing and proceeding to air, and we stated on that basis, those who do air that particular programme will be shut down in accordance with our law and we proceeded to do exactly that for that one single occasion,” President Kenyatta stated.
After the January 30 shutdown of transmission systems, signals for NTV and KTN News were allowed back on air on February 5 while those for Citizen TV and Inooro TV were restored on February 8.
The UN human rights agency echoed statements on by the United States and European Union urging the Kenyan government to suspend its closure of the stations and uphold freedom of the press.
[caption caption="ICT CS Joe Mucheri and Communications Authority of Kenya director general Francis Wangusi "]
[/caption]
ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru when he appeared before the Senate ICT Committee maintained the media shutdown was a matter of national security.
