Journalists covering a meeting between Members of Parliament and the leadership of independent commissions, on Saturday, March 25, accused organisers of kicking them out of the conference.
The meeting was temporarily interrupted when a senior government official reportedly asked the Senate leadership to drive the media out of the room.
A further directive ordered the journalists to wait until the Senate leadership issued new guidelines.
Reports alleged that a senior government official raised questions about his security, adding that he did not want to be recorded.
"Darker days loading. Maybe the timing made it sound abnormal," a veteran journalist lamented online.
Among the represented commissions were the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, National Land Commission, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and Parliamentary Service Commission.
Others were Judicial Service Commission (JSC), Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), Public Service Commission (PSC), the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), National Police Service Commission (NPSC) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Amin Mohammed also attended the meeting, later done in-camera (in private, without the public, newspaper reporters).
Nominated senator, Esther Okenyuri, stated that the sole purpose of the meeting was finding ways of working together to ensure effective service delivery in counties and the overall success of devolution.
"Key issues that the legislators are focusing on include collaboration with the constitutional institutions, challenges and legislative gaps affecting proper discharge of mandates by these offices," Senator Okenyuri, a member of the Powers and Privileges Committees, added.
The media was recently criticised, with the Communication Authority of Kenya threatening to switch off six TV stations for unethical journalistic practices. CA director general, Ezra Chiloba, accused the stations violated the programming code while covering Azimio La Umoja demonstrations.
"The Authority has established that at least six TV stations, namely, Citizen TV, NTV, K24, KBC, TV47 and Ebru TV, provided coverage in a manner that violated the programming code.
“Coverage depicted scenes that could cause panic or incitement to the public, threatening peace and cohesion in the country,” the statement from CAK read in part.
However, on Friday, March 24, High Court barred Chiloba from acting against the media.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Saturday, March 25, also apologised to the public after it emerged that it shared fake news on social media. DCI was called out for using fake protest photos in a crackdown against rowdy protesters.
"Our post was meant to appeal for information regarding the whereabouts of criminal suspects involved in Monday’s illegal demonstrations.
"The mix-up was partly occasioned by the overwhelming information we had received via the FichuakwaDCI online platform regarding the reported incidents of violence," DCI explained.
