Kenya Police assault newpaper and TV station - stories from Standard and Nation

 

Police shut down Standard, KTN Story by ERIC SHIMOLI and DOMINIC WABALA Publication Date: 3/2/2006

Armed and hooded police this morning raided the headquarters and printing plant of the Standard Group.  BLAZE: Copies of today's Standard go up in flames after being set on fire by police in the compound of the company's printing plant at Likoni Road, Nairobi early today. Photo by Joseph Mathenge They burnt copies of the newspaper and shut down the media group's 24-hours television station KTN. An estimated 30 policemen armed with AK-47 assault rifles first stormed the Standard's headquarters at the  I&M building, in Nairobi city centre, at 12.30am, before another squad swooped on the company’s printing plant in Likoni Road, in the industrial area, and burnt the day’s newspapers which were just rolling off the presses.  The raids were carried out by a rapid response unit code-named the Kanga Squad, detectives from Nairobi provincial CID headquarters and officers from the General Service Unit.  They were under the command of Mr James Njiru, the officer in charge of operations at  the provincial CID headquarters. The elite Kanga Squad was formed by the Director of Criminal Investigations, Mr Joseph Kamau, specifically to fight hardcore criminals like carjackers, bank robbers and murder hit squads.  The raids follow a running dispute between the media house and the Government over a story in the Saturday Standard alleging President Kibaki had held a secret meeting with one of his fiercest critics, former Cabinet minister Kalonzo Musyoka. Both State House and Mr Musyoka denied the story and demanded apologies from the newspaper.  Three of the company’s journalists were seized and held in police custody over the story for the past two days. The  board of directors of the Standard, Kenya's second largest newspaper, which is partly owned by the family of retired President Moi, had on Wednesday condemned the arrests as illegal and demanded the journalists' immediate release.  Early today guards at the I&M building said moments before police pounced they had closed off the entire area around Muindi Mbingu Street and the parking bays with unmarked cars, surrounding the building and blocking off any escape routes or access.  The squad included armed and masked officers who herded the guards into a corner in the reception lobby. Those who resisted were beaten up before another squad frisked them and took away their mobile phones.  Police then moved to the second floor control room which houses the closed circuit TV surveillance and security systems for the entire building, breaking down the door and to smash their way in.  Officers seized computer keyboards and electronic units controlling the security systems and slashed through electricity cables supplying power to the system. The officers appeared to know their way around the building and had planned their mission well, according to onlookers.  The squads then split up into small teams with different groups targeting different floors housing KTN and Standard Newspapers. They disconnected power lines from the KTN studio, taking the station off the air.  Police appeared particularly interested in veteran news anchorman Njoroge Mwaura who had read the late night news which replayed a statement appealing for the release of the journalists. Mr Mwaura had already left the station but the police  repeatedly demanded to know his whereabouts.  Two technical staff working in the TV transmissions room that beams the station's programmes out to the world first noticed that raid was taking place on when two armed men burst into the control room.  One of them, Mr Peter Njuguna, was taken away by the police who also seized  mobile phones belonging to the staff who had earlier been forced to lie down.  Desktop computers containing  hard disks which store all the information in the  KTN newsroom on the 14th floor were also seized, as was  a Newsdesk fax machine.  The Standard's printing press staff examine the damaged printing machine after the raid. Photo by Joseph Mathenge "This is repression. It is an outrageous assault on media freedom," said Standard managing editor Pamela Sittoni, speaking from the sealed off offices. Across the city in Industrial Area around 20 hooded policemen brandishing weapons raided the Standard printing press in Likoni Road.  They arrived at the plant at 1am in seven vehicles, parking one across the street while the rest parked just outside the gate. The policemen — all wearing luminous orange jackets with the words QRU for Quick Rescue Unit —fired three times at the gate to burst open the padlock before pushing their way inside the printing press compound.  "Laleni chini, sisi ni polisi!" (Lie down! We are the police)  one of the men shouted before he and the others ran in, shouting orders at the guards, the drivers and packers.  The policemen grabbed cellphones from all those present before herding the workers into a large hall next to the printing press where newspapers are packed.  Anyone who resisted was pistol-whipped  before being forced to the floor. While the press workers were being beaten into submission, another group of policemen broke into offices where they disconnected computers, telephones and faxes.  Yet another group of officers was systematically walking through the printing press where they dismantled several parts, disabling the equipment. An assistant police commissioner in charge of operations at the provincial police headquarters, Mr James Njiru, apparently led the raid.  He was the one issuing orders to the others to collect all the newspapers stacked ready for loading into the vans for delivery to different parts of the country.  "I can smoke you! I can waste you," shouted one hooded man all dressed in black who shouted swear words as he walked up and down in front of the group of terrified workers.  Police then herded the workers outside the building and ordered them to stay across the street as they continued to burn bundles of papers at the parking lot.  Each time a new pile of freshly printed papers was added, a policeman poured paraffin onto the blazing heap.  The newspaper had as its main headline "Champions speak", accompanied by pictures of the best students in the KCSE examinations whose resultswere released on Tuesday.  The back-page headlines announced, "Magari knew of Anglo  Leasing," and "Saitoti grilled over Goldenberg." Daily Nation reporters who rushed to the scene were manhandled and threatened with shooting when they insisted on taking pictures and asking questions.  One Standard photojournalist, Mr Jacob Otieno, was beaten up when he insisted on doing his job and said he had a right to be present because he was a Standard employee.  A member of staff with copies of the newspaper. Photo by Joseph Mathenge Nation photojournalist Joseph Mathenge escaped a beating only by hiding his camera and pretending to be a despatch driver. Contacted early today, Nairobi area police boss Mwangi King'ori said he knew nothing of the raids. "You have just woken me up. I was asleep. I am not aware of what is going on. I have nothing to do with that matter," he said.  The raids came just three days after Information minister Mutahi Kagwe - himself a former commercial manager of the Standard Group and son-in-law of the current National Security minister John Michuki - warned the media of stern Government action if they persisted in what he called misreporting and misrepresentation.  He said the Government would not be dissuaded from action even though it knew the media would gang up to defend one of their own. A Standard Board statement issued after three of the paper's journalists were arrested over the Kalonzo Musyoka report, read in part: "The Board wishes to reassure the readers and public that the Standard Group has codified in its editorial policy the supremacy of impartiality, accuracy and ethical reporting. It also recognizes that newspapers will make mistakes occasionally.  When this has happened, and confirmed to have happened, corrections and clarifications have been issued. But we also recognize and respect the rights of offended individuals to seek redress through established channels like the Media Council or the courts," the board said in a statement.  Board members said they were deeply alarmed by the sequence of events which followed publication of the story, culminating in the arrest and "illegal detention in police custody of our editors and journalist for the past two days."  "The vitriolic letter from Government spokesman, Dr Alfred Mutua, on Monday over the same issue adopted the same threatening vein and in our view exhibited a clear agenda to punish this media house without recognising the need for internal investigations to establish the facts. Media houses do have clear verification systems in place and these must be allowed to run their course and an appropriate decision taken. This is what was and still is going on," said the statement.  Last month, the police raided the Citizen Weekly offices and arrested editors, reporters and workers, while last year, two Kenya Times reporters were also arrested and later charged in court.

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It's an attack on press freedom, says Standard directors


Publication Date: 3/2/2006

The following is a statement from the Standard Group Board of Directors  In the early morning hours of Thursday, around 1am, two groups of hooded, armed people staged simultaneous raids on the editorial offices of the KTN Television and the Group’s printing press on Likoni Rd in the Industrial Area of Nairobi.  At both premises, they roughed up security officers on duty and managed to get access into the building.  In the I&M building on Kenyatta Avenue, one of the men in the group identified themselves as police officers and demanded access, which was granted. The team herded our security men into a corner and demanded access into the editorial floors and the transmission room. In the transmission room, they took away a computer, some power units and affected the cables. That action effectively disabled our transmission and we have been off air since that time. They did go into the KTN floor, where they took away several central processing units for computers used by the station’s journalists. They also took away CPUs from the commercial floors and did extensive damage to the surveillance camera units. In the printing press plant, they vandalised the press, broke glasses and disabled the unit that at that point was printing. They took away computers from the circulation offices and burnt tens of thousands of copies of newspapers that were ready for dispatch. We are therefore unable to serve some of these markets this morning.  We take a very dim view of these raids, which, on the basis of existing information, were carried out by police. We believe that this is a direct and blatant attempt to undermine the freedom of the press in this country as guaranteed by the Constitution. It is also intended to paralyze our business. We believe that the extra-judicial settling of scores has no place in any country, which believes in the rule of Law. It is our believe that our Country is still respecting its constitution and that immediate and necessary action will be to take those responsible to account for their actions. We have taken our civic duty as responsible citizens of Kenya to report these acts to the Police with the hope that it is not too late to redeem our image as a country. In spite of great difficulties we are facing, are determined to marshal all our resources to ensure that our readers and viewers are kept informed. We recognize, of course that these attacks come at a time when our journalists are being detained over alleged publication of alleged untrue story. Considering the astonishingly hostile response of the Government to what would amount to a civil misdemeanour, if it indeed is confirmed to be such, we take judicial note of the unlikely coincidence. Finally, we reassure our readers and viewers that everything is being done to bring back your favourite newspaper and television station, as soon as possible.

We thought they were thugs, say printing plant staff Story by DOMINIC WABALA Publication Date: 3/2/2006

Charles Cherono, The Standard night pre-press supervisor told how the security agents stormed into the Likoni road offices and roughly herded all employees into one hall, frisked them, beat up others and took away all their  mobile phones. "We thought they were thugs. They arrived in many vehicles and ordered us to lie down as they frisked us and took away our mobile phones. They demanded the keys to the printing press from the guards and when they couldn't get them they fired some shots and gained entry," a shaken Mr Cherono said. Another supervisor, Mr James Muiruri, said the hooded security men from the 'Kanga squad' were heard communicating to their seniors who instructed them to destroy the printing press. Mr Muiruri said  the officers stormed in like gangsters and beat everyone while demanding mobile phones.  "They demanded to be shown where the printing press was. We didn't know their intentions. They talked in a coded  language and all I could hear were instructions by someone to dismantle the printing press. A light-skinned man who was very abusive demanded that we show him a chain in the printing press," Muiruri said. A First Force security guard said that the officers arrived in seven cars and blocked the Likoni road at 12.38 am. "One armed officer jumped out of the vehicle and ran towards us. He identified himself as a policeman and ordered us to lie down as his colleagues rushed towards us and ordered us to surrender our guns. The staff members who were sleeping were hit on the heads with gun butts and hearded to one side of the production hall," the guard said. A driver whose newspaper circulation van was being loaded said his mobile phone was snatched. BREAKING NEWS State owns up to raid Standard Team   Internal Security Minister John Michuki has admitted that the Government organised the simultaneous raids at the Standard Media Group’s editorial offices and printing plant.   “When you rattle a snake you must be ready to be bitten,” he emphatically stated after attending a State function presided over by President Mwai Kibaki at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.    “The on goings (at the Standard) since last week involved state security,” he said.   The minister’s remarks left no doubt that the attack was planned and executed with his full knowledge. He was responding to questions from journalists who turned to him after desperate efforts to get President Kibaki to comment on the matter were thwarted by security officers.   Michuki, who was bombarded with questions by local and international journalists, quickly sought assistance from his bodyguards and was quickly escorted to his car.   President Kibaki, who presided over the official launch of the National Anti-Corruption Steering Committee, skirted the matter despite prodding by the committee’s chairman Mutava Musyimi.   In his speech, Musyimi said while press freedom must be exercised with responsibility and restraint, the Government must equally strive to protect the freedom.   He it was better that the Government be seen to be on the side of restraint that be seen as the aggressors.   “It should review its position over the journalists still being held in police custody,” he said.   Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua declined to comment on the attack and said Information Minister, Mutahi Kagwe, would issue a statement over the matter. Meanwhile, KTN television is now back on air, 13 hours after security officers raided the station's premises and disabled equipment. The station started its normal transmission at 2.00pm, with live streaming of the assault on the Standard Group.