First lady asked to apologise
2005-05-05 12:40
Nairobi - An international press freedom watchdog called on Thursday for Kenya's volatile, and often controversial, first lady Lucy Kibaki to apologise for a bizarre anti-media tirade earlier this week.
Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, said it was "astounded" and "stunned" by Kibaki's behaviour on Monday when she stormed into the headquarters of Kenya's largest media group with her security detail to protest against allegedly unfair coverage of her and her family.
It said her actions, which included the confiscation of reporters' cameras, notebooks and mobile phones, slapping a television cameraman and threatening the arrest of journalists, constituted an "abuse of authority" and warranted a public expression of remorse.
"We therefore call on Lucy Kibaki to apologise to the cameraman she hit," said RSF.
"We are stunned that presidents' wife went so far just to seek personal revenge," said RSF, referring also to Nigerian first lady, Stella Obasanjo's alleged order for the arrest of the publisher of a Lagos newspaper.
Both incidents occurred on Monday on the eve of World Press Freedom Day (May 3).