Law and the mass media in Kenya

This article describes and analyses the law affecting the mass media in Kenya. It poses and attempts to answer the questions: (a) who should define the role of the press? (b) how much control may the state exercise over the press? and (c) what accepted methods and instruments of control should the state adopt? It argues that state interest in the control of the press has been achieved through (a) determining how the press is to perform its role, and (b) by becoming part of the press (through ownership) and participating in defining its role. In Kenya, several legal and administrative instruments exist for controlling the press, which are to be found in public, private, criminal, commercial, and administrative legal processes. This state of affairs has not always permitted of smooth government-press relations irrespective of the legitimacy and justifiability of state action against the media. It suggests the establishment of a representative institution for canvassing various interests bearing on the performance and conduct of the press, granting and guaranteeing the right to a hearing before a tribunal before any curbs on the press are imposed, and the right of the press to appeal in the event of state action against it.