The decision to shut down three television stations was made by the National Security Council led by President Uhuru Kenyatta. 

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The three channels KTN News, NTV and Citizen TV  were switched off during Opposition leader Raila Odinga's 'swearing in' as 'people's president' on January 30. 

 ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru rescued himself from the blame, saying he was not behind the shut-down. 

Mr Mucheru told the Senate ICT committee that the decision to switch off broadcasting signals for the three stations was made by a team led by the President. 

The CS declined to disclose who in the council had the final say on the switch-off, insisting that he had no authority to speak about the matter. 

“The council took the decision because it was a security issue. I am not authorized to speak on its behalf. The matter is also still in court and I cannot speak about it,”  he told the committee. 

Attempts by committee chairman Gideon Moi (Baringo) and members Enock Wambua (Kitui), Samuel Poghisio (West Pokot) and Malachy Imana (Turkana) to get the CS to inform on who specifically issued the orders was uneventful. 

“We adhered to the Constitution and the laws of the land before switching off the TV stations; we switched them off to save lives,” he said. 

The senators blamed the CS of invoking national security to avoid divulging more information and vowed to take up the matter with the Senate Speaker. 

“You are hiding behind the National Security Council. We will discuss this matter with the Speaker and see the next course of action,” said Gideon. 

The senator said the team would forge ahead with its probe. “We represent the interests of Kenyans and want to get to the bottom of the unfortunate and ugly incident. We do not want such a thing to occur again; it reflects badly on the State,” he said.