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Three Kenyan TV stations will stay off the air until further notice because they had planned to broadcast the opposition leader Raila Odinga’s unofficial ‘inauguration’ in Nairobi.
The stations would stay closed until investigations were complete, said the interior minister said on Wednesday.
Independently owned Citizen TV and Radio, KTN and NTV were switched off on Tuesday after they transmitted live coverage of an opposition ceremony to ‘swear in’ Odinga into office, reports Reuters.
Fred Matiang‘i, who is also the minister in charge of security, accused some elements in the media of facilitating the ‘illegal act’, putting lives of thousands of Kenyans at risk.
Odinga, whose supporters say he is Kenya’s legitimate leader, took a symbolic presidential oath at the ceremony.
Matiang‘i said the opposition event was an attempt to subvert and overthrow the legally constituted government, adding they were also investigating the ‘swearing in’.
Police later arrested opposition MP Tom Kajwang who played a prominent role in Tuesday's ceremony naming Raila Odinga as ‘the people's president’, says a BBC report.
The outspoken MP had donned a lawyer's robe and wig, to the amusement of thousands of cheering opposition supporters in Uhuru park, in the capital Nairobi.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term last November. He won an election re-run in October, but Odinga boycotted it.
Kenyatta's initial victory was overturned by the Supreme Court, citing ‘irregularities and illegalities’.
The inauguration event in Uhuru park was attended by thousands of supporters, and went off peacefully.
Citizen TV live streamed the event on its website, and on YouTube and Facebook.