Career civil servant and Kisii’s political kingpin Simon Nyachae was finally buried in Kisii last week…make that last week but one.
His death had dominated the media for days, and culminated in live media coverage of a requiem mass in Nairobi and funeral service at Kisii Stadium.
But before the son of Nyadusi was lowered to his grave, another veteran civil servant and political icon of Northern Kenya fell.
Yusuf Haji, like Nyachae, a long serving provincial administrator turned politician, fell, even as all media houses had already dispatched crews to Kisii to cover the final journey of the son of Nyadusi.
And thus rose a media coverage crisis-Yusuf, being Muslim, had to be buried before sunset.
How were the media houses to balance coverage of the two deaths and two funerals of two equally important personalities; one which happened, so-to-speak, ‘on short notice’ when the other was already proceeding, so-to-speak- ‘with pomp and colour?’
All media houses dedicated live coverage to Nyachae’s burial at Kisii Stadium that was packed with an estimated 10,000 people.
KTN and Citizen did a news alert breaking the news of Yusuf Hajji’s death, but largely proceeded with Nyachae’s live burial coverage.
To its credit, NTV broke away from Nyachae’s burial and took its audience back to Nairobi for a live coverage on burial preparations for Haji, as the clock ticked towards his burial, informing us that top government officials were involved in the burial even as President Uhuru Kenyatta kept looking at his watch at Nyachae’s burial as the speeches drowned on.
In the aftermath, all media houses tried their best to play catch-up with Yusuf Haji in the evening primetime news. KTN quickly cobbled a profile of Yusuf Haji-a reminder on the importance of having a good library and good librarians on standby.
Overall, Yusuf’s death and quick burial caught many media houses ‘pens down.’
Still, live coverage of funerals on our media begs one key question – How do we determine who gets a live TV burial coverage and who does not? Do the dead; also deserve balanced opportunities for media coverage?
In the past, Kenyans have been treated to live coverage of funerals of relatives and friends of some media owners that runs for hours.
Does this amount to abuse/misuse of media freedom by rich and powerful media owners that denies millions of Kenyans the right to information?
By blocking all other News for entire days to give live coverage to every VIP funeral, do we do justice to all Kenyans and the international community that heavily depend on Kenya’s media for all manner of information and entertainment?
Granted-families and friends of departed VIPs with deep pockets can afford to pay for live broadcasts of funeral services for their loved ones, but wait-if anyone with money can buy off entire media pages and airtime whenever they want, how would this augur with media freedom?
How do other media across the world treat deaths of VIPs? A good beginning would be reference to Diana’s in the UK and the two Kennedy’s funerals in the US.
