The mysterious killing of women continues to hit the headlines. Nairobi businesswoman Caroline Wanjiku’s body was discovered dumped in Kajiado last month. The murder remains unresolved.
In the same month, the bodies of Charity Cherop, her eight-year-old son Allan and Catholic seminarian Kelvin Kipkoech were found in her house on Jogoo Road. Investigations are ongoing.
Media houses the other week carried details of an inquest that is under way in a Nairobi court over last year’s suspicious death of Keroche Breweries heiress Tecra Karanja in Lamu.
Last week media was awash with reports about the murder of former journalist Jennifer Wambua, a communications director at the National Land Commission. Her body was discovered in Ngong, days after she disappeared from her work place at Upper Hill, Nairobi.
Jennifer’s story received extensive news coverage not just because she was a journalist. She was a key witness in a case in which former journalist and Lugari MP Ayub Savula and former Information PS Sammy Itemere have been charged alongside 16 others with conspiracy to defraud the state of Sh122.3 million through fictitious claims to the Government Advertising Agency.
Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor on March 18 released an autopsy report showing Jennifer was strangled to death. “The oesophagus had collapsed showing she was strangled by bare hands,” The Star quoted family lawyer Daniel Maanzo as saying.
“The body also had other bruises on the face and legs and the pathologist said further tests will be done to establish if she was raped,” the paper reported on March 19 (p.2).
Why does the public need to know these graphic details? What public interest does this information serve? How do family and friends feel when these gory details are published?
“According to the autopsy report, her body bore what was termed as defensive injuries…. Samples collected from her body and underneath her nails have been taken to the Government Chemist for DNA analysis,” Citizen TV reported on March 18.
NTV reported that the postmortem showed she was “strangled to death” and even provided more gory details and presumptions of rape.
In contrast, online reports carried by the Standard and Capital FM said Jennifer was strangled to death and left it at that.
The media applies double standards in reporting death. When it is the death of some important person, particularly a politician, great care is taken to leave out too much detail that might further hurt the feelings of loved ones. Some TV news anchors even go out of their way to send condolences to the bereaved after reading the story.
But no similar professional caution is accorded “ordinary citizens” when they die especially through violent crime. Every available detail is pulled out and laid bare for the whole wide world to see. If it bleeds it leads, goes the old journalism adage.
The media does a commendable job pursuing and exposing violent crime. But publishing gory details hurts the bereaved more and serves zero public interest.
See you next week!
