4th Annual Lecture on Media and Politics in Africa

African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) announces its fourth annual lecture under the theme “Media and Politics in Africa”. The main purpose of the lecture series is to explore the relationship between media and politics amidst changing technological, demographic, and political conditions on the continent.

Dr Willy Mutunga, the former chief justice and president of the Supreme Court of Kenya, will deliver this year’s lecture on the afternoon of Wednesday, 8 November 2017, at the Golf Course Hotel in Kampala. Dr Mutunga’s lecture is titled, “Politics, Media and Judicial Independence in Africa”.

Dr Mutunga will draw on his own experience while at the judiciary to offer insight into how the cutthroat worlds of media and politics affect judicial independence on the continent. We are honoured to have him in a year when the Supreme Court of Kenya made history by annulling the presidential election held on 8 August.

Dr Mutunga was Kenya’s chief justice and president of the Supreme Court from 2011 to 2016. He has recently served as the Commonwealth secretary general’s special envoy to the Maldives, and as a distinguished scholar-in-residence at the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School in New York City. Before becoming chief justice, Dr Mutunga headed Ford Foundation’s East Africa office based in Nairobi.

This year’s lecture follows those delivered in 2014 by Mr Trevor Ncube, the Zimbabwean owner of South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper; in 2015 by Ms Fatuma Abdulahi, the Somali feminist and broadcaster; and in 2016 by Mr Eric Chinje, the Cameroonian communications expert heading the Nairobi-based African Media Initiative.

These lectures are being funded with a grant from the Democratic Governance Facility under a project
that ACME is running titled “Enhanced Media Reporting for Transparency and Accountability”.