Kenya told to investigate death threats to journalists

New York, 11 May – (ANA) - Kenyan authorities must immediately investigate recent death threats against a Kenyan journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said today. Local businessman Armstrong Pino allegedly threatened Joel Eshikumo, a reporter for the Weekly Citizen and a political columnist for the weekly Western Times, in public on Saturday over photographs the journalist had taken of him in court on April 27, local journalists told CPJ. Eshikumo told CPJ that unidentified callers had threatened him every night since Saturday, saying they would burn his house down and telling him to be prepared to die over the pictures he had taken of Pino in court. The journalist, who is based in Mumias, a town in western Kenya, said that Pino had complained to the court magistrate after he was photographed, but the judge said Eshikumo was a journalist and was allowed to take pictures. CPJ’s attempts to reach Pino for comment were unsuccessful as the police had confiscated his phone for evidence, according to George Seda, the police chief in Mumias. (ANA)

FA/ANA/11 May 2012------------