Yesterday marked a double defeat for Edward Kisiang’ani, the embattled ICT Principal Secretary, whose relentless overreach into the media sector ultimately backfired, leaving him a man stripped of both his position and his power.
Kisiang’ani, notorious for his attempts to monopolize government advertising and stifle media independence, found himself ousted in a high-profile government reshuffle and, within hours, dealt a devastating blow by a High Court ruling that quashed his controversial policy.
This dramatic turn of events has left him exposed and powerless, a fallen political figure whose quest to control the media landscape has ended in total humiliation.
For months, Kisiang’ani’s controversial directive had been the talk of the media industry.
As PS of ICT, he sought to consolidate government advertisements under one roof the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), which he believed would streamline public service advertising.
In reality, this policy was a thinly veiled attempt to suffocate private media houses by restricting access to government contracts and funneling state resources into KBC’s coffers.
But what was sold as an efficiency measure turned out to be a gross misuse of power. In an explosive court ruling yesterday, Justice Lawrence Mugambi shredded Kisiang’ani’s policy, deeming it not only unlawful but an egregious overstep of his authority.
The judge condemned Kisiang’ani for attempting to dictate where government agencies could place advertisements, a decision that had far-reaching consequences for media independence in Kenya.
According to the ruling, Kisiang’ani’s actions not only violated the law but also threatened the constitutional freedoms of the press, effectively reducing independent media to government puppets.
Yesterday’s court ruling couldn’t have been more devastating for Kisiang’ani.
The High Court found that his directive was not only illegal but also unconstitutional, violating the principles of a free and independent press guaranteed by Kenya’s Constitution.
Justice Mugambi was scathing in his assessment, calling Kisiang’ani’s memo a “threat to the freedom of the media” and highlighting the dangers of monopolizing government advertising.
The judgment underscored how Kisiang’ani’s actions amounted to economic control of the media an attempt to use government funds to bully private outlets into conformity with state interests.
Kisiang’ani, who had envisioned himself as a gatekeeper controlling the narrative through state resources, was instead shown to be a figure whose judgment was clouded by ambition and an utter disregard for democratic principles.
The ruling was unequivocal in its condemnation, pointing out that his memo violated the constitutional rights of Kenyans to access diverse and impartial information.
The policy, the court said, would lead to a media monopoly that would undermine the pluralistic, free-market media environment essential for a functioning democracy.
Yesterday’s judgment was not Kisiang’ani’s only blow. His removal from office as Principal Secretary in a surprise reshuffle compounded the humiliation.
Once a man at the center of political power, Kisiang’ani now finds himself sidelined, his political career in ruins.
The reshuffle, which came just hours before the court ruling, was the final nail in the coffin for a man whose influence had been built on controversial and unconstitutional decisions.
Kisiang’ani’s departure from office marks the collapse of a long-standing ambition to control the media by monopolizing advertising.
His efforts to shut out private media houses and tighten his grip on government messaging had already drawn criticism, but yesterday’s events revealed the full scale of his failure.
His reassignment is not just a consequence of his flawed policies but a reflection of how he had miscalculated the political and public backlash that followed.
