MPs root for law to control the media 

MUNGATANA: … Mr Speaker, what is the ruling of this House where we have a media that deliberately distorts the information and the decisions of this Parliament, Mr Speaker, and seeks to minimise this decision and mix it, Mr Speaker, with the question of the taxation of members of Parliament?

When in fact the Parliamentary Services Commission itself has already made a decision to appoint a tribunal and the matter of taxation has nothing to do with the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill. Mr Speaker, what is your ruling, what do we do with a media that is deliberately campaigning to malign the integrity of this House?

Mr Speaker, in your ruling you should explain and tell us and clarify. Did the committee of Parliament move at least nine amendments that were not contested by the minister? Mr Speaker, you should also clarify in your ruling that this section 88, was it part of this Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill?

Because as far as I’m concerned, Mr Speaker, this House is being vilified for something that was not even before this House.

Mr Speaker, the question then arises: is Parliament being gagged by the media, or is it the media that is being gagged by Parliament? Mr Speaker, it appears that so long as you’re disagreeing on this matter, you will be misreported, misquoted, and told all manner of things.

Mr Speaker, personally I said we must have, like all other administrative organs in this House, there are controls, there is distribution of power. Even this Parliament is controlled by the Judiciary, the Judiciary is controlled by the Executive, the Executive is controlled by Parliament.

There must be checks and balances. Mr Speaker, I said this and I said it in Mombasa. Someone in the print media wrote that I have urged the President not to sign. The President must sign this Bill, Mr Speaker. He should.

Why, Mr Speaker, it is for that one rogue media house that says, one community should arise against another one, that we need checks and balances in this house. Mr Speaker, when you are coming to work, all there is on FM stations is sex talk in the morning, Mr Speaker.

When you look at the media right now, and our children are on holiday, there are dancing people who are not properly clothed. If we say we should regulate that this content should come at night, are we saying something bad?

MUSILA: Mr Speaker, I stand here to support the sentiments expressed by the Hon Mungatana. The media purports to fight for the freedom of expression, and as you are aware, during the last week, honourable members here in this House freely expressed themselves on matters of the Communications (Amendment) Bill that was rightly before the House.

But Mr Speaker, some sections of the media have taken it upon themselves to record and take the proceedings of the house that day, and play this around, and label honourable members the enemies of the media. Mr Speaker, last night NTV labelled Hon Poghisio as the Number One enemy of the media for the work that he did here last Thursday. They labelled Hon Thuo the Number Two enemy, and David Musila the Number Three enemy.

Mr Speaker, this amounts to the intimidation of honourable members by the media. And I want to tell them, for one myself, Mr Speaker, I cannot be intimidated. But Mr Speaker, one of your cardinal duties is to protect the dignity and integrity of this House.

RAILA ODINGA ( PRIME MINISTER): Thank You Mr Speaker. Parliament is the supreme authority of this land because Parliament is elected by the people to represent them. Therefore, Mr Speaker the decisions of Parliament need to be respected. The fourth estate is equally important in a democratic society.

The media is a very important institution in a democratic society. We have come a long way in fighting for the freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom of assembly. There was a time in this country when it was impossible if you were a member of the opposition to address a press conference in any of the major hotels in this town. I know it for a fact.

We have come from very dark days of serial dictatorship when the media was not even allowed to talk about the tortures that were taking place in Nyayo house.

Mr Speaker, because of the very strong struggle of Kenyans and many sacrifices made by many people we managed to open up the democratic space that we have a free media. This did not come like manna from heaven. Therefore any attempt to gag the media in this country need to be resisted by the people of this country because if you go back to where we come from it will be a very sad day for this country.

I want to say that during the last General Election when counting was being done at the KICC, there was live broadcast of results were coming in from polling stations, from constituencies live. All of a sudden, that was stopped.

It was not just stopped, the owners of the media have confirmed to me that they were summoned to a meeting and told that KTN, KBC, NTV, citizen must immediately stop the live broadcasts. Then they said under which law… some sections of the communications Act were quoted. Mr Speaker, they attempted to resist but then a letter followed to the newsrooms that they must stop immediately.

Some of the clauses that were used were in this amendment bill Mr Speaker. I want it also be known that this bill did not come through a coalition cabinet… the time the coalition was formed(Mungatana rises). The House is entitled to a full disclosure.

SPEAKER: Prime Minister, there is a point of order…I know you are on a point of order but PM it is possible that there will be something you have said which needs to be clarified.

MUNGATANA: Mr Speaker, it is a sad day for this House that the House Business Committee that we all know that all the ministers sit there… they prioritise the business. It is not the House Business Committee of a coalition government . Is the PM in order to try and disown a decision passed by the house business committee and brought here.

SPEAKER: Very well, Prime Minister you may proceed with your point of order but please make a response also.

PRIME MINISTER: I know that members of the cabinet sit in the House Business Committee and I have not questioned its the decisions. All I was trying to say was that we now have a coalition cabinet (interruption).

SPEAKER: The Prime Minister will be heard and the rest of you will have an opportunity where you have matters that are pertinent to this matter.

PRIME MINISTER: This bill did not come before the coalition cabinet. It had been passed before the coalition was formed (murmurs).

PRIME MINISTER: We are very conscious about collective responsibility as member of Cabinet. But I will say Mr Speaker, that this matter did not come before the coalition Cabinet.

PRIME MINISTER: Mr Speaker all I am saying is that after consultations with members of the media fraternity I did discuss with the minister concerned and asked the minister to defer the business to allow for more extensive consultations with the media fraternity.

The point is this that the Bill has been passed by theHouse and has now gone to the President. The media has petitioned the President. Mr Speaker, my position is that I would like you to defer the ruling on this matter until the President has had an opportunity to look at the Bill and either assent to it or refer it back to the House.

KARUA: Mr Speaker, just seeking further clarification on the issue of collective responsibility which was also raised by Hon Mungatana. Because even if a matter did or did not go to Cabinet, the House, once seized of the matter, acts as the House.

And Mr Speaker, you never ask for the Ayes from a political party. It’s Ayes from Parliament and Nays from Parliament so there is the collective sense in the House. Mr Speaker, it is also important that I clarify that, as Deputy Leader of Government Business, on Thursday of the previous week, when the Bill should have come before the House, we consulted and we asked the chair to defer it to enable consultation with the media.

The chair of the committee on communications is a member of the Prime Minister’s party. The person I asked to consult was Hon Imanyara and the Minister for Information. There is a sense in which if we give information to the public, it will look like we have lost the collectivity in Government and in the House. Mr Speaker, you need to give us direction.

When something is passed by the House, irrespective of whether we contributed or were all present, it is a decision of the House. And if we want to rescind from that decision, we must rescind from it again collectively as the House, and not try to score any political mileage for either ourselves or our political parties in a matter as grave as this one.

KENYATTA: Mr Speaker, as it has been stated by the Hon Prime Minister, this House is the supreme House in the land we call Kenya. Mr Speaker, all Bills brought before this House are Government Bills and we have a collective responsibility as ministers of Government, to either make our comments at Cabinet or, Mr Speaker, to make those known through the House Business Committee to this House, Mr Speaker.

Is it in order, Mr Speaker, that we use this House and that camera standing directly in front of me right now, Mr Speaker, to appeal to the general public and the media and make other members of Parliament look as if they are non-caring to Kenyans.

If anybody had a comment, Mr Speaker, on the particular Bill before us, nobody locked those doors and prevented them to come here and air their views. Mr Speaker, before this House, Mr Speaker, we seek your ruling, we seek your guidance.

What is at stake here, Mr Speaker, is the manner in which this Government and this country will be ruled. Are we going tod disown that Government and play to the public media because of our own personal agendas for the future?

ESELI: This House is being called upon by Kenyans to actually do something good for this country. After the election of last year, we have come up with several commissions of inquiry that have told us clear that all those problems were brought about by four groups of people, the political class, the ECK, security arms and the media.

Right now we are dealing with the electoral commission, the political class will be dealt with by the tribunal we will set up on the Waki report, the arms of security we will be able to reform them.

Mr Speaker, what do we do about the media? I think when you eventually give us guidance on this; we have to keep those issues in mind very clearly before any of us plays to the gallery. But as we seek to reform the media let us also keep in mind that we should not gag them completely they are also a mouthpiece of us politicians.

NYONG’O: I would like to agree with members that this House is a supreme law making body of the republic of Kenya. But as Soyinka said the tiger does not need to shout about its tigritude, it pounces. I do believe that we do not need to shout about our tigritude but to pounce on the problem.

The problem is not that we want to gag the press nor is it that the press want to muzzle the house. The problem is a misunderstanding of what happened in Parliament on that day that myself wasn’t here as was on official duty in Sweden but now I am here. If I could be given my chance, my appeal to the House is the following.

If we know there has been a misunderstanding then lets us isolate it from the other issues that are attendant to the Kenyan politics. This misunderstanding is about certain clauses in that Bill that was passed. I would rather we isolate that issue and deal with it rather than either hang the press or condemn ourselves. Because what is emerging and I am afraid to say, we may be driving ourselves toward hubris when it is not necessary for us to do so.

As the honourable Eseli has said, the press is also a mouthpiece for the honourable members of parliament. I know that I have been mistreated by the press sometimes but I am the same person who too has said that freedom of the press is necessary to building a democracy.

The Honourable Prime Minister has refered to a time when we were tortured in Nyayo house and not a single brave press that could come and say what we went through. But it is through those tortures that we restored democracy in this country. I would not like any temptation however attractive it is for us to travel any one step backwards. I would rather we stumble two steps forward.

ETHURO: In supporting Honorable Mungatana I would also like to seek in your ruling how does the press clarify the humble servant of Turkana Central as the enemy of the press number two. I want to know what kind of ranking was used Mr Speaker.

KILONZO (MUTULA): On this issue of the media Bill, that legislative authority has not yet expired. It will only expire only if the President refuses to sign that Bill into law or if he signs it into law.

So therefore that process is in hand. And it is very important for all of us, I share the views of those who have been attacked, I personally have been the subject of the media many times, but I want to remind the country and the media itself that when human beings stumble, they never stumble on mountains. They stumble on small stones. And there are signs that we are, as a country, on a course to stumble on stones.

And therefore, as you consider this very important issue, Hon Speaker, please be guided by the principles that have brought this country so far. The principles of tolerance, the principles of the fact that we are engaged in a very serious exercise and that when Parliament exercises its authority under section 33, that authority is subject to audit by the country, by the world.

And that is what brings in the media. And I wanted to say, that we should not either as media or as Parliament stumble on a stone. I have looked at the Hansard, they had an amendment proposed on this floor of the House.

But for some reason, I cannot tell because I wasn’t in the country, that amendment was neither executed or for that matter advocated or put across. But the media must accept that Parliament exercised its authority on that law. And therefore, as they criticise, they also should not stumble on this stone.

Courtesy of:www.nation.co.ke