Resilient. Bent but not broken. A battered watchdog, attacked from all sides, trudges along one painful step after another, licking its wounds, starving and its throat parched, but refusing to stop or drop dead into silence. That, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, sums up the state of the media in Kenya at the close of 2025.
At the end of November, the staff of Radio Africa Group sighed with despair upon receiving their salary notifications. A whole 30 per cent of their pay was slashed off for the next three years. The drastic “voluntary” action was the only way to save their jobs, management said. Earlier in April, Lion Place had laid off 27 workers in an effort to ensure the company’s survival.
The case of Radio Africa exemplifies the struggle throughout the industry. Media owners and managers are at their wits end on what else to do to stay afloat. Amid worsening job insecurity, increased workloads and salary cuts in a country hit by increased taxes and high cost of living, journalists and other media workers still strive to deliver on their mandate each day.
Last month, the president of Kenya Editors Guild, Zubeida Kananu, highlighted the enormity of this crisis. “We appeal to media houses to prioritise the welfare, dignity, mental health and timely payment of your staff. This year, we mourn colleagues who passed away – some under immense stress. We honour their memory and their service. A thriving media begins with thriving journalists.”
And as if the hard economic times are not devastating enough, the media is also under intense pressure from powerful forces unhappy with its assertiveness under constitutionally guaranteed freedom and independence.
On Jamhuri Day, the government’s human rights agency, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, delivered this sobering assessment: “The commission notes with concern a surge in violations against journalists and media practitioners during 2025, including assaults, threats, denial of access, destruction of equipment, and temporary shutdowns of media operations during protests and major state events. Journalists from several media outlets covering demonstrations and national celebrations in [places] such as Nairobi, Nyeri, Molo, Majengo and Homa Bay were subjected to violence and intimidation by both security officers and hostile groups.”
The KNHCR called on the Inspector General of Police to investigate and prosecute all attacks against journalists and media workers. It urged the government and regulatory agencies to cease harassment, intimidation, arbitrary detention and obstruction of journalists and to ensure an enabling environment where the media can operate freely and independently. The Communications Authority should refrain from unlawful actions that infringe on media and digital freedoms and discharge its mandate in fidelity to the Constitution. The Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act, 2025 should be reviewed to bring it in line with constitutional guarantees under Articles 33, 34 and 35.
These same concerns were raised in September by human rights defenders in their submission to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in Banjul, Gambia: “The civic space in Kenya continues to shrink. Kenya has been categorised as ‘Obstructed’ from ‘Repressed’ by the CIVICUS Index Monitor. The freedoms of assembly, peaceful protests, expression, media freedoms and association remain under threat.”
The Media Council of Kenya has throughout the year been tireless and vocal in speaking out on the twin challenges of the crippling economic difficulties afflicting the media and the rising threats to its freedom and independence. The strange part is that everyone expects the media to uphold the highest professional standards in an environment where it is struggling for survival and where the basic principles governing a democratic society are, at best, treated as mere suggestions and not binding obligations or, at worst, ignored with utter impunity.
“Civic freedoms are not luxuries. They are the foundation of democracy, accountability and social justice,” The Standard editors wrote on December 11. “When citizens lose the ability to speak freely, gather peacefully or mobilise, the state becomes unaccountable. When journalists are silenced, corruption goes unchecked and the oppressed have no means to demand redress.”
As journalists and other media workers take a break to join their families and friends during this holiday season, the state of the industry weighs heavily upon their hearts and minds. But the problem is bigger than the precarious livelihoods of employees. Our country’s democracy is at stake when the starving and wounded media cannot freely and independently discharge its watchdog role.
Yet we must not give up. We must cling to the hope that the New Year will bring good tidings for the industry and country. The Media Observer team wishes you happy holidays.
See you next year!
