Kenya’s ‘Saba Saba’ political rally in Nairobi on Monday was not broadcast live by local television channels after the country’s ICT regulator warned broadcasters against hate speech.

On Sunday, the day before the Saba Saba rally, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) released a statement saying: “The Authority hereby wishes to remind broadcasters that the constitutionally guaranteed Freedom of Expression does not extend to spread of hate speech, propaganda for war, incitement to violence, advocacy of hatred that, among others, constitutes ethnic incitement, vilification of others persons or community or incitement to cause harm.”

The rally was a culmination of calls for national dialogue by the opposition Coalition Reform for Democracy (CORD) on issues facing Kenyans, such as a series of terror attacks and ethnic representation in government. Former Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga heads up CORD.

CORD issued an ultimatum 60 days ago that it would conduct the rally if the ruling Jubilee coalition failed to conduct more open discussions on Kenya’s problems.

Subsequently, concerns became heightened that the rally could plunge Kenya into ethnic violence reminiscent of that in 2007 and 2008 when a disputed presidential election result sparked anarchy.

A media blackout was instituted by government during the 2007 and 2008 violence.

And memories of that blackout resurfaced on Monday as local broadcasters such as NTV made the decision not to broadcast live proceedings of the rally. Instead, only international television news station Al Jazeera broadcast the rally live.

“Kenyan TV station worse than government. The governed allowed the rally but the media stations banned it completely,” posted prominent Kenyan blogger Robert Alai on his Facebook page on Monday.

Other Kenyans on Twitter raised their concerns over the self-imposed media blackout on Monday.

“Must we be silent on the issues that divide our country? No. Media blackout today was misadvised,” tweeted SIR MASEME MACHUKA ‏@Maseme777 on Twitter.

NANCY OKUTAH, ‏@nancyokutah on Twitter, tweeted, “Media blackout not to air sabasaba live coverage, just gave the opposition more attention, media gag at work.”

On a programme on NTV called Press Pass, the Media Council of Kenya chief executive officer, Dr. Haron Mwangi, defended the self-censorship, “There was a feeling that it was going to get out of control and … so there was a need to create a sense of calmness. To that extent I could say that the decision was well informed.”

Dr. Mwangi said this was not the only incident where media owners decided not to air live broadcasts of political rallies.

Last week, the Media Council of Kenya also had a stakeholders meeting with journalists and broadcasters. The meeting was intended to ‘sensitise’ the media on how to cover issues dealing with national security during a time of heightened terror attacks in the country by the likes of Al Shabaab.

During NTV’s Press Pass show, Dr. Harun alluded that the media blackout was meant to avoid inflammatory remarks that would have been made during the public rally.