A Kenyan human rights watchdog has criticised the government for introducing 'archaic, colonial, retrogressive and dictatorial regulations' that it says were meant to undermine press freedom in the country.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said that in gazetting the new broadcast media laws, the government had proved that it had lost touch with reality, says a Daily Nation report. 'Prime Minister Raila Odinga came out to resolve the contentious issues with the media and now a Permanent Secretary is doing the opposite. Who is calling the shots,' asked KNCHR vice chairman Hassan Omar. He urged the government to revoke the regulations because such suspicious operations portrayed it in bad light. He said that just as lawyers and doctors operate under self-regulation, the media should also be allowed to do so. The chair of the Kenya Editors' Guild, Macharia Gaitho, described the regulations as retrogressive and obnoxious. The Ministry of Information, he said, had employed subterfuge and deceit in publishing the regulations despite an agreement with media stakeholders last year at which Odinga mediated.
Full Daily Nation report