Audio By Vocalize
Abducting journalists won’t silence Kenya’s press. [File, Standard]
September had an ominous beginning for Standard Group Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich. Armed men in a government vehicle abducted him along the Gilgil–Nakuru road and later dumped him near Masinga Dam in Machakos County. It was Kiprotich’s second brush with armed men this year.
The media is increasingly under siege, and every government that has ever tried to cage the press has told itself the same lie: that this time, the bird will stay quiet. History, however, keeps proving otherwise.
The canary in the coal mine does not sing to please the miners. It sings, or falls silent, to warn them. The miner who shoots the canary for singing has not solved his toxic gas risk. Rather, he has only ensured nobody will warn him of the next one.
