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| Kenyan Media Sacrificing the Common Man at the Altar of Political Sensations |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
The magnetic speed with which much of the Kenyan media moves in to record politically sensational statements would have won an Olympics Medal or any other international athletics speed-gauging race. In a country where more than half of the population lives below the poverty line, earning less than a US $1 a day, this begs the answer as to whether Kenyans really ever set their priorities right. This may also not be shocking in a country where a citizen once tried to milk an elephant to his detriment and where a national leader once expressed interest at hosting the World Cup, way ahead of currently more developed Egypt, Libya or Morocco.
While trying not to appear as an ‘antijingoist’ and what African Americans call a 'player hater', it is worthwhile to point out that much of the Kenyan media content is very foreign and arguably of poor quality once prompting a renowned African American film maker to gasp at the negative alienation and contorted lifestyle of the Kenyan populace. The media have a duty to inform, educate, as well as shape the socioeconomic and moral fabric of the society. But in the case of the Kenyan media, these do not seem to form the main cornerstones. Politicians are being paraded as sworn and pathological enemies in an amorous tirade of daily verbal exchange pitting them against each other. In their attempt to stoke up bigotry and proverbially 'set the thief to catch the thief', many in the Kenyan media fraternity trip over themselves in their search for political interviews and comments from attention-thirsty politicians who are only too willing to oblige 'over a bottle or two'.
The crystal clear fact unknown to many good-willed ordinary Kenyans is that these are just but masqueraded struggles by some members of the Kenyan Fourth Estate to mine gems of political strife where none existed. The fact is, many of these politicians are, in the real world, business partners, relations and confidantes and any attempts to portray them as enemies are intended to hoodwink the common Kenyan 'mwananchi' into a wonderland of deceit and misconceptions. Many are the Kenyan people who have been killed in fights involving factions supporting different Kenyan politicians. This happens as the warring common man wallows in abject poverty due to neglect and unfulfilled promises by political cronies in the government. Coupled with the current struggle to make the Millennium Development Goals a reality, this begs the question as to who should highlight the common man's problems.
The politicians, elected on policy platforms of creating 500,000 employment opportunities per year, as well as curtailing corruption and mismanagement of the country's resources seem to be more engrossed in amassing illegal wealth and fortunes at the expense of the common Kenyan. Prices of basic commodities such as cooking fat, sugar, and bread among others have gone up and the economic ‘hangmanship’ continues to strangle the ordinary Kenyan. Despite efforts to provide cheaper fertilizers to a minority of Kenyan farmers, it’s notable that the cost of industrial and agricultural production has gone up, as evidenced by the frequent closure of companies, which presumably move to more investor-friendly climates.
Many companies in Kenya's Export Processing Zones have closed shop in this regard. Poverty is on the increase even as many of the same politicians live in plush residential areas and cruise in gas-guzzling motor vehicles whose bills are footed by the taxpayer's coffers. With some of them reputed to own media houses, the issue of media freedom in these media houses therefore remains a question of 'orders from above' where fairness may not be expected to prevail at any level.
Well-intentioned attempts by the President of Kenya, Hon. Mwai Kibaki, to spur economic growth and steer clear of torturous mistakes made by the two former misruling governments have been met by allegations of callous corruption, and adamant lack of transparency in the management of the country's resources being leveled against those in his government's payroll. Many foreign envoys have equivocally condemned the changing state of affairs, even likening it to the two previous mismanaging governments. Among them, the British High Commissioner to Kenya, Sir Edward Clay; German Ambassador to Kenya, Bernd Braun and the Swedish Ambassador to Kenya, Bo Goransson have been the most vocal in roundly condemning these perceived crimes.
The so-called NARC RAINBOW government has thus been dubbed a sell-out by many Kenyans with echoes of resentment bellowing in villages and towns where joblessness and insecurity is still a problem. While the government's initiatives to start new industries are commendable, their neglect of collapsed ones, where multimillion dollar machinery is left in waste should be condemned.
All these happen while many in the Kenyan Fourth Estate direct their muscles towards political debates in a subconscious dreg to gauge which political 'foe' perform the greatest verbal diarrhea. While this is not meant to appear as verbiage and a directionless tirade against the conscientious members of the respected Kenyan scribery, a call for attitude change and more socioeconomic debates is timely. The current Kenya's Gross Domestic Product is 4.3%, a far cry from the over 6% annual rate of over three decades ago; the media is needed to play a vital role in helping uplift this by working at the ground level to bring, initiate and highlight more debates on various socioeconomic development issues of the day.
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Antony Felix O. Simbowo
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