Our media

Which media tells the truth?

I have to thank the kenyan media for striving to be objective while exposing the truth in what has since robbed Kenya it's international reputation as a stable democracy and a model in Africa. The events unfolding in Kenya were uncalled for, untimely and quite unexpected. However, as much as they seemed to have surprised the world, I was not very surprised because I already had a bad feeling about the elections, sepecially when the Electoral Commission of Kenya delayed announcing the winner of the presidential votes and eventualy suspending the process due to " public pressure".

I remember how I was roaming everywhere to get hold of the latest news about the elections, being a kenyan living in South Africa. I still do. I simply could not be satisfied by Aljazeera, sky news, BBC, dont even mention CNN. In many occassions, I was channel hoping and not even SABC Africa, which I wonder how prominent African issues are to them-they seemed to be focusing on other issues and proximity to them did not count as a news value, could satisfy me. CNBC-Africa should just delete the word "Africa" attached on CNBC, because everytime I am tuned in, they are always reporting on stories in the united states and europe. Anyway, the internet came in handy and thanks God the Kenyan Daily newspaper online (Daily nation) is available.

On this day, while busy reading nation online, a female kenyan friend walked in shouting " hey Fred, I thought I would find you here" she sounded happy, but at the same time had an empty expresion on her face. Then, well, we had to update ourselves on whatever news we had about the elections. Knowing that I am a Luo by tribe, she told me that Raila, the Luo opposition leader was still ahead of Kibaki, the Kikuyu. She was not literaly mentioning the two tribes but what she said later, convinced me that she realy wants victory for Kibaki, since Kibaki belongs to her tribe. She said Raila is now leading with a difference of 200,000 votes and continued that the government is planning to delete names starting with letters "o" and "A", which happens to be Luo names, in Raila's Lang'ata costituency so that he can loose his parliarmentary seat. She seemed not to have any problem with such fraud. For you to be president in Kenya, you have to be an elected member of parliament as one of the requirements by law.

I was shocked to find out from the news that Raila's name was actualy missing from the voter register just like she said and several other names. Raila's second name is Odinga. From that point, I knew things will terribly go wrong in this year's election. I remember telling my friend at the cybercafe that I also suspect, due to the delayed annoncement that Kibaki will be declared the winner, but I also warned her that if such is the case, and given the support the opposition has in Kenya, it will create violence. That is why I was not shocked when violence erupted in Kenya.

Then very heavy focus by the international media followed. This focus included heavy critisism and reminded me of majopr stereotypes the west still has about Africa and Kenya in particular. A blanket statement about their reporting is that they presented the Kenyan situation as nothing different from the tribal war that takes place in most of the countries in Africa. It was simply the Luo fighting the Kikuyu as a result of the disputed elections and not a war as a result of people's democratic rights being infringed. However, thanks to media diversity, because while this kind of reporting came largely from Sky news, BBC and CNN, Aljazeera reported more accurately, putting issues into perspective and in their right context.

All Kenyans know that this is not a tribal war, it is a war for economic empowerment of the poor who have been langushing in poverty for a long time and who are fed up with the empty promises of selfish politicians. Little wonder that the core of the clashes are in areas where poor people live, and that is, the slum areas of major cities and rural areas. As it is, it only heighted tribal suspicions in such areas which later turned into physical battles, as accusations and counter accusations among tribes based on their economic positions in the current economic situation. The victimised here obviously, are the kikuyu because they, over the years and since independence, have accumulated wealth and are better off than other communities in the country. This exposed the consequences of tribal alignment, whereby the other minority communities in Kenya believe that others, in this case the kikuyu, who apparently form the governement, have to blame for their poverty.

Nothing can justify the killings that took place in Kenya. Whether it came from ODM suporters or PNU suppoters is immaterial. What remains clear now is that Kenyans will not allow selfish leaders in office anymore in future because they are educated and have matured democraticaly. This perhaps marks the death of rigging in future elections, and marks the begining of a mature democracy where the people's voice is respected and leaders are ready to leave office after being defeated in elections. The Kenyan media should be given a thumbs up in not taking sides in this crisis but standing for what the people of Kenya now desperately need, peace. The Kenyan media should keep on preaching peace irrespective of what the foriegn media reports. Afterall, as the first president of Kneya, the late mzee Kenyatta use to say "Kenya is marwa nobody can tunya's" an expression that combines Luo, Kikuyu and english to represent the diversity of the kenyan people, let us protect Kenya.