The Hindu : International : Kenya's First Lady faces assault charge

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Friday, May 13, 2005

International

International

Kenya's First Lady faces assault charge

NAIROBI: A television journalist who was slapped by Kenyan First Lady Lucy Kibaki has filed a formal complaint with the police, charging her with assault and calling for her arrest. Clifford Derrick of Kenya Television Network said he filed the complaint on Tuesday, a week after Ms. Kibaki stormed into the newsroom of the nation's largest newspaper with her security detail, demanding journalists be arrested for what she considers biased coverage and slapping the cameraman to stop him from filming the outburst. ``I am demanding that she be arrested and be taken to court because we had given a whole week to apologise, which she has failed to do,'' Mr. Derrick, who won last year's CNN African Journalist of the Year award, said on Wednesday. ``We want to prove that she is not above the law.'' The confrontation, which lasted from midnight until 5 a.m. local time followed regular reports by Kenya's newspapers of allegations the first lady acts more like highhanded royalty than the wife of a democratic leader. News of the encounter provoked widespread outrage. The President's office, however, did not express remorse for the assault on the reporter.

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