Catholic priest was yesterday shot dead by armed robbers at Kinoo in Kiambu county. An unknown amount of money was stolen from Father Samuel Muhia, who is in charge of Kinoo parish in Kikuyu constituency (People Daily, December 11, p. 5) By all other accounts, the priest’s name is John Njoroge. Verify. That is a critical task of good journalism.
The leaders said they were sad that Lake Victoria was choking with hyacinth and robbing fishermen and water transporters of their livelihoods (Standard, December 10, p.9) Inappropriate metaphor. Lake Victoria is choking with hyacinth, so it is a victim of attack, so to speak. Does it make sense then to accuse the lake of “robbing” fishermen and transporters of livelihoods? No. Rather, the lake has been rendered unable to support them.
Raila, who spend (hey, spent) the better part of the weekend assuring the residents that his unity with Uhuru meant well for the people of Nyanza and Kenya, asked the leaders to keep calm and reap the benefits of the handshake unity (Standard, December 10, p.9) Too much “unity” in trumpeted here, adding no value to clarity.
Standard online headline: Standard Group mourns the death of Jamal Nassor ‘Baba Junior’ (December 12). You mourn someone. You do not “mourn the death of Jamal” – because only the dead are mourned.
Standard online headline: Jamhuri showers leave 300 Kisumu families (December 12). How could this be? A shower is light and brief rain. But the story said: “At least 300 families in Nyando were left homeless after five hour downpour on Tuesday night.” Showers and downpour are not synonyms.
