Gun
Many celebrities and media personalities have found themselves ending becoming victims of intimidation or attacks.
Here are a number of journalists who were attacked and some whose life was snuffed out while they were on the line of duty
Julius Kariithi– The correspondent with Kenya’s Citizen TV had been covering a protest by primary school pupils against a decision by a local agricultural company to reclaim a piece of land it had allocated the school ten years ago. He was attacked by over 15 security guards with kicks and batons.
“My pair of trousers was torn apart and I suffered a dislocated knee. The camera and my laptop were destroyed and I lost my recorder,” he tells Quartz.
Dennis Otieno– freelance photographer, whose passion of getting to the bottom of things, knowing the truth and informing people, was gunned down by three men seeking to recover from him a certain ‘sensitive’ photo he had taken earlier in the day.
The photographer, 26, was shot dead immediately after a gang of three invaded his home at about 11 pm, said area OCPD Wilfred Mogere.
“The three demanded a certain photo before engaging him,” said the wife, Janet Otieno.
“While trying to defend himself, they shot twice but missed. The third shot killed him.” Janet said.
Electronics, including a camera, and an unknown amount of money were stole from the house.
Joseph Masha– a correspondent of the Standard Group was claimed to have been poisoned when he shared a meal with a vocal politician one evening.
The journalist collapsed and died moments after meeting the politician.
“The members of the public are aware of such trends and at times express their anger by assaulting journalists when those that they support are perceived to be negatively and unfairly represented in the media,” Mwangi says.
Francis Nyaruri-On January 30, 2009, The Standard reported that Francis Nyaruri’s decapitated body was discovered at the edge of Kodero Forest, on January 29, 2009, two weeks after he disappeared.
His hands were tied, his eyes plucked out and a section of his jaw disfigured prior to his murder. Nyaruri’s death, however, faded after it was alleged that a policeman was behind his demise.
Nyaruri, under the pseudonym, Mong’are Mokua, wrote extensively of corruption within the police service in Nyamira County on the Weekly Citizen.
John Kituyi– On April 30, 2015, the editor and publisher of Mirror Weekly, a small publication based in Eldoret, was walking home when he was attacked and killed by two men armed with a blunt object.
According to Daily Nation, Kituyi was murdered at around 7.30 pm in somewhere between Country Lodge Club and his Pioneer Estate home. His phone was confiscated by his killers.
Kituyi initially served as the Eldoret bureau chief for The Standard before he established his own publication.
One of Kituyi’s final articles featured an ICC witness who mysteriously vanished.
The story he was working on detailed the disappearance of a key witness, Meshack Yebei.
colleagues Samuel Nduati-On Sunday, October 27, 2000, a 41-year-old Radio Citizen Business Editor Samuel Nduati was brutally murdered in his home.
According to a report by Daily Nation, Ndwati was shot using a silenced gun and robbed of money, TV, a VCR, radio, and clothes.
The business editor had established himself as a business journalist, which earned him a career at Nation Media Group and Royal Media Services, which owns Radio Citizen.
Before his demise, Nduati worked on a number of articles pertaining to corruption at the Coffee Board of Kenya.
Daily Nation reported that Nduati’s murder was never linked directly to his work about the coffee industry, though some of his attributed his death to his work.
“The security and safety of journalists is now a major concern to us. Many incidents of harassment, intimidation, unexplained summons by the police, assault confiscation and breakage of cameras and equipment have been reported to us,” the Media Council’s chief executive officer Haron Mwangi tells Quartz.
“The members of the public are aware of such trends and at times express their anger by assaulting journalists when those that they support are perceived to be negatively and unfairly represented in the media,” Mwangi says.
But, as Kenyans grapple with reports of high levels of corruption, insecurity, tribal politics and political intolerance in the country, journalists who routinely cover such and other sensitive issues are often subjects of harassment and attacks. The questions dilemma still remains on when will the harassment end.
