Media personalities’ contacts shared on social media in an attempt to incite Kenyans to harass them over media coverage of Gen – Z protests

Yvonne Okwara and Mashirima Kapombe were among journalists’ contacts shared online to to provoke public attack against them over the coverage of the protests organized by young people in the country. The media in Kenya faced condemnation over the coverage of the recent Gen-Z protests in the country. The source of the instigation was not clear although contacts of media personalities were shared to incite the public against journalists and castigate the media houses for allegedly not covering the protests as desired or being against the government. The Kenya Media Sector Working Group convened a meeting in Nairobi to condemn intimidation and threats directed against journalists especially the Royal Media Service journalists. In her statement, Zubeida Kananu the president of Kenya Editors’ Guild said “These are indeed challenging times for journalists in Kenya. yesterday in a blatant attempt to intimidate and silence us the phone numbers of many journalists were posted online”. She condemned the media attacks and demanded that the government offers protection for media houses.