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Bomb
scares and secret sales
by John Kamau, Rights Features Service
(August 18, 2000) Kenya's
Citizen Radio and Television, which has been battling to have
its countryside frequencies restored, has moved to the country's
High Court once again, this time to stop the government from "secretly
selling" its telecommunications gear.
 And
in an unrelated development, Citizen Radio and Television had
to cut its broadcast today after an anonymous caller warned that
a bomb was set to explode at Am-Bank House, which houses the radio
station.
The station was forced
to delay its lunchtime news as police evacuated the entire building.
No explosives were found.
"Secret" sales alleged
At the High Court,
Citizen's lawyer, Kibe Mungai, told Justice Michael Khamoni that
the government was "secretly" trying to sell telecommunications
gear imported by Citizen Radio and Television owner, Samuel K.
Macharia.
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Citizen
Radio owner S. K. Macharia accused the Kenyan government
of secretly trying to sell telecommunications equipment
that he says belongs to him.
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The judge certified
the application as "urgent" and directed that the matter be heard
on Monday, August 28.
The telecommunications
equipment has been stored at Kenya's Custom and Excise Department
pending approval and after a successful legal battle on the true
owners of the equipment.
Start of the problem
In 1995 Macharia launched
a legal battle after some ruling party officials — led by
Jared Kangwana, a former ally of President Daniel arap Moi, claimed
that the equipment belonged to them. Although Macharia won the
legal battle, the equipment was never released after the Commissioner
of Custom and Excise demanded outrageous duty fees which Macharia
contested.
Observers in Nairobi
now see this as the genesis of the problems that has bedevilled
the radio station ever since.
"What we are contesting
now are the charges and the new bid to sell the equipment at 30
percent of the original value," Citizen lawyer, Kibe Mungai told
the Nairobi-based human rights organization Rights Features Service
in an interview.
The court heard that
there was no dispute over the ownership of the equipment but that
the Commissioner of Custom and Excise wanted Macharia to pay "outrageous
penalties" and storage charges for the time the equipment stayed
at the custom as he fought the ownership battle.
The court also heard
that the Commissioner of Custom and Excise had previously suggested
that the matter (to have the equipment released to Macharia) be
solved out of court. But in an affidavit filed in court Macharia
said that he had learned that the commissioner, in collusion with
an unnamed "third party," had invited telecommunication experts
from Acrodyne Industries of Pennsylvania, USA, to advise on the
equipment's value to sell it.
It was after learning
of this intended secret sale that Macharia moved to court on the
evening of August 17 to thwart the bid.
The Citizen Radio and
Television lawyer told the court that "unless the application
was heard urgently, Royal Media Services (the company that runs
Citizen Radio and Television) would suffer irreparable loss."
Transmitters switched
off
Citizen Radio has been
in court for the best part of this year after its
transmitters were switched off on allegations that it had
not paid its frequency bills and on accusations that its broadcasts
were jamming other frequencies.
The true story is that
Citizen had challenged the dominance of the state-run Kenya Broadcasting
Corporation (KBC), the only radio station hitherto allowed to
broadcast in the countryside, and had challenged the state propaganda
in the rural areas where majority of Kenyans reside.
Although Kenya has
several FM stations they all operate in Nairobi.
The switching off of
Citizen Radio and Television has meant that KBC is the only radio
heard in the rural areas.
Transmitters not
reconnected
Last month, Kenya's
Court of Appeal (the highest in Kenya) refused
to order the reconnection of the station transmitters and restoration
of its broadcasting frequencies pending the hearing of the
full suit. The High Court has still not listed the matter as urgent,
meaning it will be heard at the discretion of the court.
The Court further upheld
a February 29 judgment by the lower court
that refused to restrain Telkom Kenya, Communication Commission
of Kenya, and the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation from
interfering with Citizen's facilities and frequencies.
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ALSO OF INTEREST...
Samuel
Macharia is not the only former protege to have run afoul
of his mentor with disastrous consequences.
Former
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, once widely
expected to succeed long-time Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed,
was fired in September 1998 after disagreeing with Mahathir
about economic policy.Soon afterwards, Anwar
was arrested and charged with sodomy (which is a crime
in Malaysia) and corruption. Last week, he was convicted
of sodomy and sentenced to nine years in prison.
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Falling out of favor
A former confidant
of President Moi, Macharia — from the Kikuyu tribe which
dominates the opposition — fell out with the president after
he failed to have Moi make in-roads into the Kikuyu tribe despite
leading a high level campaign soliciting for votes in the Central
Provinces of Kenya. Macharia was the chairman of a lobby group
that campaigned for Moi during the 1997 general election.
It was after he fell
out with Moi that his station was at first accused of broadcasting
"anti-government messages" — which in the Kenyan political
jargon means giving the opposition politicians a forum. The accusations
were later twisted and the station was accused of broadcasting
from the wrong site and for failing to pay broadcasting fees leading
to the current court cases.
Macharia insists that
he has paid all the fees arrears and dismissed the issue as a
"camouflage." He insists that the real issue surrounding the six-month
saga is whether certain audiences in the Rift Valley province
should listen to the independent Citizen radio rather than the
state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.
Some of the conditions
set before Macharia resumes broadcast include the payment of Kenya
shillings 20 million (US$286,000) demanded by Communication Commission
of Kenya as arrears.
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