When some uncouth MCAs go hammer and tongs at each other, tearing off shirts, wigs and blouses of colleagues and hurling missiles, journalists are supposed to stay calm and report that a key bill on increased allowances was passed. And when they fly out to Bhutan to benchmark on the use of non-carcinogenic wheelbarrows, the media should applaud.
When Auditor General Edward Ouko publishes reports revealing stolen billions of shillings in practically every public office, reporters should ignore these revelations and instead write about the wonders of the wildebeest migration in the Maasai Mara.
Reporting that corruption is a national disaster will scare off investors.
When over-used cancer treatment machines break down at Kenyatta National Hospital for days, consigning patients to a life of hellish pain and hopelessness, many of them having sold everything to travel hundreds of kilometres to seek medical care, good news media should ignore these little failings and focus on Kenya’s growing stature as a regional economic power house. Or that KNH is the largest referral hospital in East and Central Africa, blah, blah…
When nearly a million youngsters pour into the job market a year but only about 50,000 can get a meaningful job – while unemployed university graduates are ridiculed for roasting maize on the roadside to earn a living by the same leaders who promised millions of jobs before the election – the media should stop boring the nation with these titbits and highlight the revolution in the Kenya Police Service brought about by their new uniform.
When tons upon tons of illegal contaminated sugar or maize are sneaked into the country, impoverishing local farmers and poisoning unsuspecting citizens – yet we have one of the best intelligence services on the Planet and numerous regulatory bodies – journalists should stop being petty and find more important news to report. Like the “launch” of a school latrine in Ol Kalou. Or a sub-county commissioner’s sermon about food security.
The tired narrative that the media focuses excessively on negative news instead of telling the public nice stories refuses to die. Apparently, journalists should act like pastors, bishops, prophets, apostles or PR agents whose job is to give people hope or paint colourful images of their society – for a profit.
On Wednesday, November 6, the Star reported that Meru senator Mithika Linturi asked journalists to market the county to investors rather than focus on negative news.
“I would like us to create a very strong bond. And we would want you to air or write stories that create confidence in our people and investors who want to invest in Meru,” Linturi pontificated.
The senator’s comments came days after President Uhuru Kenyatta expressed a similar view. He asked the media to put Kenya’s interests first and shun negative reporting on the country’s affairs.
“Sometimes, it is usually very frustrating when all you can do is hear complaints, especially from our Fourth Estate. And there is never anything good. Please, I want you to remember, there are a lot of people… well-meaning Kenyans who are doing a lot, spending sleepless nights to move this country forward,” Uhuru said at a State House briefing.
Well, to be sure, there are lots of well-meaning Kenyans spending sleepless nights to move the country forward. Trouble is, their efforts go mostly unrewarded or whatever they produce doesn’t actually move the country forward. It is stolen.
Anyone ever heard of maize farmers who now throw away their grain at Sh1,000 a ‘gunia’ or less when it costs at least Sh2,000 to produce? Or fishermen and their families going to bed hungry because of cheap imports from China? The collapse of cotton farming and the textile industry because the government allows mitumba imports? Children of sugarcane farmers out of school because cheap imports have killed the sugar sector? Rice farmers and traders in Mwea closing shop because of imports from India and Pakistan?
These are the stories journalists must tell. Why?
To begin with, journalists are citizens. We live here with our wives, husbands, children, mpango wa kandos and sponsors, moms, dads, uncles, cousins, our mama mbogas, Kamau the electrician, Hassan the plumber, Odongo the mechanic, Moraa the salonist, barman Gotos, Owuor the prophet, Kamaliza the witchdoctor….
It is the love for our country and its mostly suffering people that impels us journalists to ask hard questions about the conduct of public affairs. Underlying this questioning is our belief that Kenya can be better. Kenyans deserve better.
The government owes its citizens certain duties and rights. And it is not for free. Kenyans pay taxes. They all have a right to the resources our country is endowed with. The government acquires loans in our name.
Second, a scribe plays a watchdog role on behalf of fellow citizens. In a manner of speaking, sorry writing, it is the scribe’s job to hold the feet of persons in power to the fire. Why? Because it is self-evident that people in power do not necessarily act out of goodwill.
The journalist’s task is part of civic vigilance, critical public participation, which is the duty of every citizen. It is not enough to elect good leaders – we doubt there is any such thing as a ‘good leader’ in the first place. It behoves us, the citizens, to keep those in public office on their toes.
Third, it is not entirely correct to say that the media is full of negative reports. Pick any paper today. Watch or listen to any news broadcast. You will get both positive and negative stories. There are stories of achievement and failure. The good, the bad and the ugly. And, admittedly, negative stories tend to be the most emotional precisely because it is usually the poor, powerless people, who are the victims. Often, they are the victims of abuse of power. Good journalists must bring out the plight of our suffering poor to the consciousness of society. We aim to prick the hearts of the men and women in power.
And fourth, good journalism goes beyond providing public information and holding the feet of leaders to the fire. We create platforms for re-imagining society. No one has a monopoly of ideas. The media creates a marketplace of ideas, a healthy pluralism of perspectives for the renewal and advancement of society.
So, the allegation that the media concentrates too much on negative news is hard to defend. We will keep doing this to our last breath.
