In every election, journalists scramble out of newsrooms in response to the loud and persistent call of their people to represent them in government. That is how all politicians describe their pursuit of power.
They do not seek high office because they salivate at the glamour, the money, influence and other trappings of power in a country that pampers its political class at the expense of everyone else. No, politicians are humble servants who abandon everything and make great sacrifices to serve their people after being repeatedly begged to do so.
That is why former Standard editor Ayub Savula is the MP for Lugari and deputy party leader of Amani National Congress. Former award-winning KTN investigative journalist of “Jicho Pevu” fame, Mohammed Ali, represents Nyali constituency. Former Standard managing editor Enoch Wambua is the Kitui senator. Samburu West MP Naisula Lesuuda previously worked for KBC. Former broadcaster and media owner Gathoni wa Mucomba is the Kiambu Woman Rep. And so on.
What strikes many media observers, though, is that these former scribes now occupying high positions of power, privilege and prestige hardly find the time or need to openly defend Press freedom. In Kenya, journalism is still a hazardous job – from threats and insults by powerful people, to physical attacks, hefty libel awards by the courts that cripple media businesses, gag orders, to the passage of draconian laws sponsored by an increasingly despotic Executive.
The waheshimiwa journalists never speak out. Perhaps they are too busy. Or, as we say here in Africa, it is bad manners to speak while you are eating.
Now, another election is just a year ahead. Nairobi’s great journalists describe it as “looming”. The buzz around mediascape is that many journalists are raring to take a stab at various elective positions. It is their right. Nothing stops a journalist from being ambitious. There is no reason why a scribe should not hearken to the deafening and relentless clamour of their people to lead them. Why not, a scribe should become the President.
Civil servants must resign six months before elections. Elections ref Wafula Chebukati says they must quit their positions by February. The law makes sense. Government workers should not use their privileged positions to campaign for themselves.
What about the journalists intending to vie? Well, they can stay at their desks and carry out their campaigns until polling day. If they lose, they can stay on. If they win, then they can relinquish their positions and proceed to the County Assembly, Senate, National Assembly, the governor’s mansion or to State House.
But this situation raises the critical ethical question of conflict of interest. A journalist occupies a privileged position whose basic job is to “write a fair, accurate and unbiased story on matters of public interest”, states the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism in Kenya.
A journalist must be fiercely independent, gathering and reporting the news without fear or favour. The undue influence every journalist must resist is not only from outside forces. One must “resist any self-interest or peer pressure that might undermine journalistic duty and service to the public,” the Code says.
Because of the power of information it wields, the media has massive influence on how society functions, including the conduct and outcome of elections. Journalists come under heavy pressure to carry favourable reports on politicians or minimise negative information about them to build their careers.
What happens if the journalist is building her own political career while on the job? What sort of news coverage would she accord her party and its bosses? How fairly would she cover her opponents?
It is established without question that an election is a process – not an incident that happens entirely on polling day. The media plays an important role throughout this process. In the interest of professional integrity, all journalists seeking political office in 2022 must quit their jobs preferably at the same time as civil servants – that is in February 2022.
See you next week!
