The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) on Monday, June 14th, warned Bungoma Governor, Wycliffe Wangamati against making threats to a reporter employed by Royal Media Services (RMS).
The council called upon Inspector General Hillary Mutyambai to protect Jimmy Simiyu who is attached to Sulwe FM.
Simiyu, reported the threats to the Bungoma police station following advice from the media regulator. The threats came after the reporter followed an event that occurred on Saturday, June 12th.
The reported covered Wangamati as he attended a funeral in Tuuti village where his aides reportedly beat up some of his critics.
Kenyans.co.ke spoke to a representative of the Bungoma Governor on the matter and confirmed the journalist was focusing on a story that happened in Tuuti. The Director of Communications further claimed that there was a story on scholarships that the reporter was assigned to do but had not been broadcast.
"The Governor did call Jimmy Simiyu yesterday, not to threaten but to seek clarifications on a few things and seek he did
"I find no fault in Governor asking that Jimmy exercises professionalism and grants him a right of reply in a story that is nakedly negative and one-sided," affirmed Tim Machi, the county's Director of Communications.
The media regulator recorded the claim that an RMS editor called the Governor to tell him about the story that Simiyu was working on.
Machi asserted that Wangamati and Jimmy spoke about a story involving an elected leader collecting money from parents for the Governor's scholarship programme. The reporter is said to have filed the story, however, it was not aired.
"The Media Council of Kenya calls upon the public and various public governance levels, including County Governments, to refrain from threatening and obstructing journalists from undertaking their lawful roles," MCK stated.
Further, a recommendation was made to RMS to find out if an editor had played a role in affecting the journalist's independence and freedom.
This warning comes after another issued on Saturday, June 12, made to the County Government of Kisumu for making threats against the Nation Media Group.
The county government had issues with a documentary that the media house had done.
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