On a good day journalists see, smell, touch and hear the same things. That happens often. Not because all scribes went to the same kindergarten, or wake up in the same house, but for two unsurprising reasons. One, news hounds mostly hunt in a pack – unless they are chasing an exclusive. And two, they watch the same forest and the same monkeys.
Reporters get invites to the same news events, read the same press releases or stumble upon the same events. They are lobbied by the same political and business wheeler-dealers who dominate the news each day. They seek expert opinion of the same pundits. The late UoN lecturer Ken Ouko was about the only sociologist in town most reporters appeared to know.
And, generally, the big stories of any day are the same. How could they be different when newsrooms have their lenses permanently trained on William Ruto, Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, Musalia Mudavadi and Kalonzo Musyoka?
So, on Wednesday, September 29, Kimathi Street proclaimed, “Changing fortunes”. That was how the editorial pontiffs interpreted a meeting the previous day between ODM leader Raila Odinga and a phalanx of Mt Kenya billionaires. Four governors and “wealthy backers of presidents Kenyatta and Kibaki”, the Daily Nation said, endorsed Raila to succeed Uhuru.
Up on Waiyaki Way – which is quickly morphing into Nairobi Expressway – Lion Place saw the same thing. “How Raila’s fortunes are now changing in Mt Kenya region”, The Star headline said (p.6).
But on an odd day, scribes watching the same forest and the same monkeys, for some reason, end up seeing totally different things. And you are left wondering why.
On the day the Raila-Mt Kenya story was the big news, the People Daily carried a story titled, “Employers get MPs backing on NHIF bill (September 29, p5). “Kenyan employers will not match workers’ contributions to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) after lawmakers rejected the proposal yesterday,” the paper reported.
“An amendment by Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wah carried the day with legislators saying that forcing the employers to top their workers’ contributions would affect the wage bill”. Only the national government, parastatals and county governments would be required to top up their employees’ contributions after the President assents to the new law.
Clear as the water of a virgin stream deep inside Mt Kenya Forest where Ngai Mwene Nyaga alone drinks. Well, until you read a story on the same issue in the Daily Nation. “Employers to top up staff NHIF payments”, the headline stated (p.13).
“The National Assembly has ignored protests by employers and adopted a proposal that requires them to top up contributions made by employees to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF),” the paper reported.
Employers had warned that compulsion to match their workers’ contributions would inflate their wage bills and weaken their capacity to hire more people. “But MPs shrugged off the concerns and unanimously adopted the proposal,” Nation stated.
If you read The Standard, you were informed that the employers’ concerns won. “MPs spare employers more NHIF burden,” the story said. “Employers can sigh with relief after the National Assembly failed to adopt an additional burden of statutory deductions that could have seen them match workers’ monthly contributions to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF)”.
So, what are citizens supposed to go by? What’s the truth about this important matter of public interest? If after reading such news citizens called NHIF for clarification, or the public insurer itself proactively spent public money to publish a clarification, then the media failed to do its job properly.
Accuracy is the first cardinal principle of journalism. This is not only an ethical issue. Publishing false, misleading or fictitious information is a crime under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act.
Individuals and institutions who believe they have been misrepresented or defamed by news reports quickly ring their lawyers to demand an apology. Usually, media houses publish those.
But what happens when a media house misleads the public by getting the facts wrong? Nothing happens. News bosses expect their audiences wajisort. But this is irresponsible and immoral. If you get the facts of a story wrong, clarify and apologise to the public soonest.
