Government Halts Seven-Day Shutdown of Major Kenyan TV Stations

After seven days off-air, NTV and KTN News television stations have had their transmission restored back by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

The two stations, alongside Royal Media's Citizen TV and Inooro TV, were disconnected on Tuesday after they defied an order by the government not to broadcast live pictures of the controversial swearing-in of opposition leader Raila Odinga.

In a tweet, NTV Kenya said the signal had been switched on, but only on pay TV carriers Dstv, GoTV and Zuku.

Citizen TV and Inooro TV are still off-air.

Last Thursday, High Court Judge Justice Chacha Mwita ordered Communications Authority to restore signals of the affected media houses pending the hearing and determination of the case challenging the shutdown. The case was filed by activist Okiyah Omtatah.

However, CA continued to ignore the order since it issued on Thursday. On Monday, Omtatah returned to the court to file contempt proceedings against Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, his ICT counterpart Joe Mucheru and the Communication Authority.

Mating'i had last week stated that the four stations would remain closed until government concludes investigations on Raila's swearing-in.