Kenyan president vetoes anti-media bill

You don't see presidents in Africa vetoing bills that often. Usually, heads of state arrange it so they have supplicant majorities in the national legislatures to do their bidding. So kudos to Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki for vetoing a controversial media bill that most analysts considered to be draconian.

Kibaki came under heavy criticism last year when the government launched an armed raid on an independent media organization, notes VOA.

It added that previously, his wife Lucy Kibaki stormed into a newspaper office and harassed journalists on the eve of the World Press Freedom Day.

Proponents of the bill argued that the Kenyan media are abusing its newfound freedom, but opponents contended that the media needed to be free to sort these things out themselves.

Update: In a rather surprising move, at least from the outside, Kibaki's re-election bid has been endorsed by his predecessor Daniel arap Moi. One wonders if this poisoned chalice isn't a cloak-and-dagger attempt to undermine Kibaki's campaign.