Is BBC a mouthpiece of British Govt? MP John Kiarie condemns Blood Parliament exposé

Uploaded on Monday, the documentary reveals the police officers who shot dead protestors on June 25, 2024, when Gen Zs stormed Parliament during the anti-Finance Bill 2024 demonstrations.

The video has since garnered over 3 million views in barely 24 hours, with the issue trending on social media platforms. 

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Kiarie took issue with the documentary and wondered whether BBC purported to enforce the British agenda in Kenya. 

"In media, the BBC is funded by taxpayers' money in Britain, meaning that it is funded to push the foreign agenda internationally. We want to know if the BBC is speaking as a mouthpiece of the government and the people of Britain or what it is doing," he stated. 

The lawmaker claimed that the documentary was a plot to arm-twist Kenya to rescind the condition placed by parliament that the British Army soldiers who commit crimes in the country must be charged locally. 

"Could it be an attempt to arm-twist this country so that they can rescind the rider that we put on the training of BATUK units in Kenya and perpetuate a history of extractive economy, oppressive and exploitative economy in an unfair trade balance between Kenya and the UK?" he questioned. 

Other legislators echoed Kiarie's sentiments and accused the British broadcaster of an underhanded motive in airing the documentary. 

Mandera North MP Bashir Abdullahi claimed that the exposé interfered with the country's healing process from the June 25, 2024, events. 

"We sympathise with those who were killed. It's unfortunate, but people all over the world have been killed. People were killed in the US at Capitol Hill, in UK-London people have been killed, children and women are being killed in Gaza and the BBC has never spoken about it," the MP stated. 

"They have never spoken about the genocide in Gaza, yet it is a world service. Let's not clap hands for foreigners as they paint our country as a discriminatory society."

The BBC report singled out police officers believed to have killed three protestors after analysing over 5,000 images to piece together the sequence of events on June 25, 2024. 

It has since elicited debate in the past 24 hours, with the British broadcaster citing that Kenyan authorities have since blocked its screening at the Nairobi Cinema. 

“A screening of BBC Africa Eye’s 'Blood Parliament in Kenya' was cancelled due to pressure from the authorities,” a BBC spokesperson said.

The documentary also renewed calls for the arrest of the police officers behind the brutality witnessed during the protests.