On Wednesday, the rule of law lay wounded. Its dignity bruised, its authority threatened, and its life hanging in the balance. The cold barrel of a gun was pressed against its head, not just by rogue criminals, but by the hands meant to uphold and defend it.
Kenya is in a constitutional crisis of conscience, one where the State is emerging as the lead violator of the law. On this dark day, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), through its Director General David Mugonyi, a journalist by profession, issued a directive that defies legal boundaries and aimed at snuffing out the last flames of democratic accountability.
In a letter to media houses, the CA banned live television and radio coverage of peaceful protests. Protests that were not only protected by our Constitution but also deeply personal, as they were held in mourning and remembrance of the young people killed during the June 25, 2024 demonstrations.
The High Court issued an injunction against its implementation. It was dangerous. Let us be clear: the Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression and access to information. It recognises a free media as a critical pillar of a democratic society.
Any move to gag the press, whether through intimidation, signal jamming, or forced shutdowns, strikes at the very heart of our democracy. Yet the CA did not stop at an illegal directive. In a disturbing escalation, its officers, acting with chilling confidence, raided media houses transmission stations and shut down their free-to-air signals.
That was not a routine operation. That was a political act of censorship. It was not just the media house’s signals that went dark. It was the light of truth. The assault on the media is an assault on every Kenyan’s right to know what is happening in their country. It is an attempt to shield rogue elements of the state from accountability, especially those in the security forces who have used these demonstrations as an excuse for State-sponsored violence.
The killings of unarmed youth. Some shot in the back, some while helping the injured, some while holding only flags and placards must never be hidden from view. This is not just about freedom of the press. It is about justice, dignity, and human life. The CA’s directive amounted to impunity in its purest form. When government agencies feel empowered to issue illegal orders, mock constitutional limits, and subvert judicial authority, it just tells us where we have descended to as a nation.
When institutions designed to serve the public violate the very laws they are sworn to uphold, the result is institutional collapse. We are witnessing the rise of a government within a government. A rogue, unaccountable administrative culture where power is exercised arbitrarily, violently, and with no regard for truth, law, or consequences.
But the damage does not end there. This same environment of lawlessness emboldens not only police officers but also criminal elements. Goons, opportunists and infiltrators use the chaos to loot, attack and vandalise. The line between law enforcer and lawbreaker becomes blurred, leading to a nation in moral and institutional free fall.
This has also been a bad week for the families mourning their children, for journalists doing their duty, for protesters exercising their rights, for judges having to issue orders to protect basic democratic values, and for every Kenyan who believes in a society built on the foundation of justice and accountability. The state has lost its moral compass. Its institutions are now accessories to repression. And the values of our Constitution, so hard-won, so proudly proclaimed, are being eroded not from without, but from within. But there is hope.
The Law Society of Kenya and Kenya’s civil society have not been silent. The legal fraternity have spoken. Brave journalists, unbowed and determined, continue to tell the truth. And the youth, those same Gen Z Kenyans who watched their peers fall in the streets, are still standing, still marching, still defying darkness.
They know that repression is not a sign of strength. It is a symptom of fear. And the more the State tries to bury the truth, the more it exposes its crimes to the world. The moment we stop speaking, the law dies.
Kenyans must wake up and defend the law. Defend the Constitution. Demand justice for the slain, demand accountability from CA, and demand a government that obeys its own laws. Let this be the moment we reclaim our nation.
By Gitobu Imanyara