The Katiba Institute has written to the Communications Authority of Kenya Director General Ezra Chiloba demanding answers regarding their censure of six TV stations over their coverage of Monday's Azimio La Umoja demonstrations.
Chiloba in a statement listed Citizen TV, NTV, K24, national broadcaster KBC, TV47, and Ebru TV as the TV stations he said violated the law.
Through Ochiel J Dudley Advocates, Katiba Institute says the Authority seeks to get back the country to 2018 when the media was shut down over their coverage of Raila Odinga's mock swearing-in.
The body said banning live coverage will give police the leeway to be brutal and violate the law.
"We see your action as a threat to freedom of expression, information, and of the media and a repetition of the 2018 TV shutdown by you. Your decision endangers life because it would enable the trigger-happy Kenyan National Police Service to operate in darkness. That would be a real threat to peace and cohesion in the country," the letter reads in part.
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"We think that your decision is a throwback to the era of state-sponsored censorship and a presumption that the Kenyan public is not adult enough for the marketplace of ideas. Thus your prior censorship of the live TV broadcasts."
The Katiba Institute now wants the CA to revoke the letter and service them with details of the intrigues that led to the censure.
The body reminded the CA of the High Court decision that bars the state from limiting the media.
"We remind you of the many High Court decisions forbidding limiting media freedom on vague grounds like the one in your letter.
"Hence we demand that within the next 24 hours, you revoke the unconstitutional communication, give us copies of the letter sent to the six media houses and Give us minutes and recordings of the Authority meeting at which you made this unconstitutional decision," the statement reads.
