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Kenya's High Court Orders Government to Reopen Country's Top 3 TV Outlets

by VOA News

   Kenya's high court Thursday ordered the government to allow the
   country's three largest television stations back on the air after they
   tried to broadcast images of the mock inauguration of opposition leader
   Raila Odinga.

   The ceremony was attended by tens of thousands of Odinga supporters in
   the capital of Nairobi to protest Uhuru Kenyatta's presidential
   election victory last year, an election Odinga claims was rigged.

   The government responded to Tuesday's mock inauguration by declaring
   the opposition movement a criminal organization and ordering the TV
   stations to stop broadcasting.

   Interior Minister Fred Matiangi said Wednesday the TV stations and some
   radio stations would remain shut down while the government investigates
   their role in what he said was an attempt to "subvert and overthrow"
   Kenyatta's government.

   'On Thursday, however, High Court Judge Chacha Mwita ordered the
   government to restore the operations of Citizen Television, the Kenya
   Television Network and Nation Television News. He also ordered the
   government not to interfere with the stations until a case disputing
   their shutdown is heard.

   Odinga told reporters that democracy in Kenya is "under serious attack"
   and called the country's ruling party "certainly mad."

   Kenya's Supreme Court invalidated Kenyatta's August victory after
   Odinga said the vote counts were changed in Kenyatta's favor after the
   electoral commission's computer system was hacked. The court ordered a
   new election in October that Kenyatta won.