Folks, we have a problem. Why do some people insist on doing journalism when their talents obviously point elsewhere? Jubilee still needs bloggers. More mechanics are needed at Grogon. The country has an acute shortage of prophets as we speak, sorry, write. Not enough touts. But no, some people, it seems, must be journalists whether we like it or not.
On Monday, June 4, readers woke up to a story in the Nation headlined “Kenya beats all odds to become the first EA nation to export oil” (p.6).
Ahem, beat all odds. East Africa’s first nation to export oil. For real?
Why didn’t the Kimathi Street scribes splash this earth-shaking news on their front page? We are in the exclusive club of petro-dollar heavyweights, yippee!
But how much oil has Kenya exported? When? To where? What odds did we beat to achieve the feat?
“Kenya’s ambition to become one of the global oil producers was boosted yesterday following the flagging off of the barrels of the resource destined for Mombasa from Turkana oil fields,” the story read.
“President Kenyatta led a host of local leaders to celebrate the feat that enabled the country to join Uganda as the only two oil-producing countries in East Africa.”
Fabricated news.
People, Kenya has not started producing oil, or what the Nation extravagantly called “the lucrative resource”. There are no exports yet.
What happened on Sunday, June 3 in Turkana was something far more modest than the Nation’s pompous proclamations. The President flagged off four lorries each carrying 156 barrels of crude oil (624 barrels) to Mombasa for storage. Just that.
“The crude oil is being transported in an experimental programme dubbed Early Oil Pilot Scheme. It will be kept in Mombasa as the country looks for viable international markets,” the Nation reported.
Read that again. Experimental programme. Pilot. Not commercial production. To be kept in Mombasa as country looks for markets. Where, then, are the exports?
What exactly caused the Nation’s jubilation about Kenya beating all odds blah, blah, blah? They had the facts.
A mere 624 barrels to be stored in Mombasa. In comparison, Nigeria produces 2.5 million barrels of crude oil a day. Angola’s daily production stands at 1.6 million barrels.
In his regular column in the paper the following day, veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho debunked the Nation’s story in a piece fittingly titled, “Political white elephant slime lies beneath crude oil ‘export’.”
Although he did not hit at his paper directly, which is to be expected, Gaitho termed the oil export brouhaha as one of the “schemes and scams based on election promises.” (And the government is supposed to be all out with guns blazing fighting corruption, remember?)
There are no huge oil exports coming out of Turkana anytime soon.
“That there are no buyers yet queuing up as the trucks roll towards Mombasa is another issue not being mentioned,” Gaitho wrote.
“While lauding the great day as Kenya becomes an oil exporter, the government should at least have dampened expectations by clarifying that our coffers are not about to start overflowing with petro-dollars. Those expecting Kenya to swiftly become another Qatar or Saudi Arabia are in for a rude shock.”
Tell them, retired general!
Gaitho’s piece castigated the government for the hype, which suggests the Nation was co-opted to trumpet government propaganda about “the lucrative resource”?
We have a problem, folks.
