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Curfew: Critical non-journalistic staff to get special MCK passes

By Amina Wako March 26th, 2020 1 min read

The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) has said that it will issue special media passes for critical non-journalistic staff inside newsrooms following the curfew directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday.

Media has been classified as an essential service during the dusk to dawn curfew.

“The MCK will provide temporary special media passes (SMPs) to non-journalist staff critical to the normal operation of media houses,” read the statement by the MCK.

The staff include those in non-editorial departments such as the finance, operations, human resources, marketing and CEOs.

In addition, MCK has called upon media houses to aid in the facilitation of the same by providing the full names of the staff, job title, and name of the media house, National Identity/passport number, and a passport-sized photo.

Other journalists who have not yet been accredited will be offered special temporary passes that will aid in their movement at this time of the coronavirus pandemic.

The MCK advised the accredited journalists to carry their press cards at all times as they would aid in facilitating identification to security agencies that have been tasked to enforce national security.

The dusk to dawn curfew will take effect on Friday and it is not yet clear how long it will take.

The directive came as Kenyan Covid-19 positive patients rose to 28 in the country with one person said to have recovered.