Prior to the statewide Azimio la Umoja anti-government rallies, residents in several areas of Migori started protests on Monday morning.
Due to demonstrators’ stone barricades, the Migori-Isbania road is impassable.
The demonstrators were seen singing songs in the Dholuo dialect in videos that Citizen Digital had access to.
One of the protesters declared, “We do not want to see policeman here.”
Transit and local businesses are halted, and police are monitoring the situation from a distance.
The grand march is expected to happen in Nairobi’s capital as Azimio leaders Raila Odinga, Martha Karua and other top brass allies are set to lead protesters in voicing their demands.
Azimio Now Launches Portal For Kenyans To Upload Photos, Videos From Protests
The Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition has announced a new web portal for Kenyans to upload recordings from the planned bi-weekly anti-government protests.
Through Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi, the Raila Odinga-led opposition outfit on Sunday said this was in response to what it called a threat to media freedom regarding coverage of the demonstrations.
“In the face of real threat to the free media, we wish to assure Kenyans that we have put in place a secure web platform where members of the public are invited to post occurrences in form of photos, videos and audios during our weekly peaceful demonstrations,” Wandayi said in a tweet.
“This material will be available for the world to see. This will enable us to keep the public and all stakeholders informed of progress and real-time occurrences across the country.”
The MP, who was arrested and later released during Monday’s demonstrations in Nairobi, said anybody with a phone or a camera, could access and post anonymously on the web portal.
Anyone can also view the material remotely, Wandayi said, adding, “All those that intend to cause mayhem will also be captured through a number of our IP-enabled spy cameras that will transmit to our cloud servers in real-time.”
The portal will be accessed through mddkenya.com.
Following last week’s demonstrations, Odinga announced they will hold the protests on Mondays and Thursdays due to what he described as public demand.
However, through the Communication Authority on Wednesday, the government threatened to revoke the licences of six television stations over their live coverage of Monday’s protests.
CA criticised Citizen TV, NTV, K24, KBC, TV47 and Ebru TV, claiming the broadcasters had violated the code of coverage.
The regulator’s CEO Ezra Chiloba said the live airing of the protests was a form of incitement to the public and may upset the peace in the country.
The High Court however suspended the CA’s censure on Friday, following a case filed by the Katiba Institute, Law Society of Kenya (LSK) as well as journalist unions who said the decision could undermine media freedom.
The court also said that CA’s decision may endanger the lives of people since the police would be acting in absence of the fourth estate as the people’s watchdog.
“CA’s decision could have a chilling effect on media freedom, freedom of information, and freedom of expression,” read court documents.
“Besides, the decision endangers life because it would enable the trigger-happy National Police Service to operate in darkness and police demonstrations without media oversight,”
