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{
    "id": 1151129,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1151129/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 44,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Statement by Sen. (Dr.) Musuruve. When the toll is done at the end of this Parliament, it might turn out that Sen. (Dr.) Musuruve is one of those Senators who contributed to the greatest extent on matters of topical interest. On 3rd May, 2022, the world marked the World Press Freedom Day. Even though we are a few days late, it is not too late to acknowledge those people who tell our stories. I started my career in the journalism space many years ago when I was still at the university. I was an intern at the Weekly Advertiser . It was a free publication of the Nation Media Group. It was given out free the same way we are giving out the PeopleDaily newspaper free today. It carried out a lot of advertisement. Our job was to put out features and stories that would make people grab it on the streets. Later, I worked with Wahome Muchiri when he pioneered one of the first talk show programmes in Kenya; Upclose and Candid . I was one of the researchers on that show. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I hail the journalists in Kenya and all those who are involved in that space who have despite lots of frustration put their lives on the line to ensure that we get to hear the stories of what is going on in this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, although in the past we had issues like the Artur brothers that invaded some of the media houses, we have not seen aggressive Government interference with the rights and freedoms of the media. I would like to thank and congratulate the Government for that, even though there is still some salient suppression. For instance, if the Government decides not to advertise with some of the major media houses, then it is a way of crippling and killing them without violence. As they said, peace is not just the absence of war. So, even though we are not seeing the Arturs and the Armenians invading media houses, the Government should still ensure equitable distribution of advertising revenues to the major media houses. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I hope in the next Parliament, we shall take stock of the achievements of mygov.go.ke, which was one of the innovations the Government came up with to centralise advertising and reduce the expenditure on advertising across the Government. We will need to check whether it has resulted in killing of media houses or brought about efficiencies that have helped media houses. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we cannot ignore extrajudicial killings of journalists. Sen. Faki here from Mombasa has been the voice of this House on extrajudicial killings. Many a time, it is not just human rights activists. Sometimes it is journalists who disappear without trace or notice. In my county, there was a highly publicized matter of the killing of a young lady. One of the media persons who was involved in that has never been seen to date. We need to protect our journalists from that. Finally, Mr. Speaker, Sir, the media industry must prepare itself for the digital disruption. Just the other day, Charles Onyango-Obbo, one of the most acclaimed"
}