Weekly protests by Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) could be given a media blackout if a proposal by the films board is implemented.
Kenyan Film Classification Board (KFCB) Chairman Ezekiel Mutua, on Saturday urged the media not to cover Cord’s anti-IEBC demonstrations.
“The media should give a black out to the primitive anti-IEBC demonstrations. Kenyans are being inconvenienced weekly because of the violent demos… Most of these fellows are doing it because they know the cameras will be there. Take this to the bank – the demos will die a natural death if the media stopped covering,” said Mutua.
Mutua proposed that if the anti-IEBC demonstrations were to be aired on television, then they should be broadcast after 10pm when children are asleep. He claimed that the images from the anti-IEBC demonstrations were influencing children in the wrong way.
He also cautioned that there could be a repeat of the 2007/2008 post-election violence if the media continued covering the anti-IEBC protests.
Cord leaders, on Tuesday last week turned down a proposal by church leaders to suspend the anti-IEBC demonstrations and seek an alternative means to air their grievances. The clerics offered to be mediators but the leaders maintained that the protests would continue until Jubilee makes a public commitment to dialogue.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga maintained that the anti-IEBC demonstrations would not stop unless the current commissioners leave office. He urged his supporters not to stop the weekly anti-IEBC demonstrations despite the excessive force used against them by police.
On the legality of the anti-IEBC demonstrations, Raila maintained that the coalition was within the law to hold such protests. He dismissed claims that the anti-IEBC demonstrations were illegal and urged CORD supporters not fall for the propaganda.
The demonstrations are within their rights as stipulated in Article 37 and 38 of the Constitution, he said. The former prime minister further trashed the argument that IEBC commissioners could only be sent home through parliament.
Raila said Kenyans had the options of either handling the matter through their elected representatives in parliament or directly demanding for the removal of the IEBC commissioners and they had chosen the latter.