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OHCHR concerned 3 Kenyan TV channels remain off the air

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Excerpt from Geneva Press Briefing.
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The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announced today their concern that three of Kenya’s largest private TV channels remain off the air.
OHCHR’s spokesperson Rupert Colville said today to media in Geneva, that “we are concerned that three TV stations remain suspended for the third day today in Kenya after the government accused them of ‘complicity’ for airing footage of opposition leader Raila Odinga’s ‘inauguration ceremony’ ”.
Kenya’s main opposition leader Raila Odinga of the National Super Alliance (NASA) has declared himself the ‘people’s president’ at a controversial swearing-in ceremony in the capital on 30 January. Thousands of his supporters attended the event, despite a government warning that it amounted to treason. The authorities shut down TV stations to prevent live coverage of the event.
OHCHR said today that they understand that this is in spite of an interim order by a Kenyan High Court, instructing the government to allow the TV stations to resume transmission.
Colville noted that “we call on the government to respect and implement the judicial decision. We are also concerned at the government’s attempts to interfere with the rights to freedom of expression by reportedly warning that participation in the ‘inauguration ceremony’ would lead to revocation of licences. Media organisations that disregarded this advice were shut down”.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term last November, he won an election re-run in October, but Odinga boycotted it.
Elections were first held in August but the courts ordered a re-run, saying Kenyatta’s victory was marred by irregularities.
OHCHR urged the Kenyan government and the opposition in Kenya to work towards resolving the current situation through dialogue, with full respect for the rule of law and the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly and political participation.
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