Kenya took a big breather from politics following the death of former President Mwai Kibaki on April 22. His national mourning hogged media coverage for days. And the gods had conspired to give Kenyans a five-day holiday. The headlines should have read: “Big blow to Raila and Ruto as Kibaki death stops poll campaigns”.
In a unanimous show of love for the Motherland and honour to a celebrated statesman, the media spared nothing to give the Third President a rousing send-off. The nation was not just united in mourning but also in deep reflection about how visionary and dedicated leadership can transform the lives of citizens.
For three days, Kibaki’s body lay in state at Parliament Buildings, where President Uhuru Kenyatta led Kenyans in paying their last respects. The Star painted the scene on the first day, Monday, April 25:
“Mwai Kibaki looked as though he could sit up and speak, and probably deliver a quip, a barb. His face was relaxed, his lips turned into the characteristic slightly sarcastic frown, the sort displayed when he was peeved or angry….
“Kenya’s third president was dressed in an ash-grey suit, white shirt, colourful blue tie and highly polished black shoes, just unpacked for the occasion. Kibaki lay without a casket. He was on a table, or pier, covered with white satin, his head on a pillow trimmed with gold fringe”.
Of course, throughout those three days, Kibaki’s body was beamed by TV cameras into the living rooms of Kenyans, offices, entertainment joints and many other places across the republic. It had happened with the body of his predecessor, Daniel arap Moi, in 2020, and Jomo Kenyatta in 1978.
But while TV stations appeared to have no qualms about beaming pictures of the former president’s body, the newspapers seemed reluctant to publish the pictures – except The Star.
On April 26, Lion Place dedicated about a third of its front page to a full shot by PSCU of the body of Kibaki, President Uhuru Kenyatta and the First Lady. Another photo taken from the head down was printed on pages 4-5.
The People Daily on the same day carried the PSCU photo of the body, but covered it from the ribs up with another shot of mourners. Readers could not see Kibaki’s head.
The Nation and Standard avoided putting the body on the front page. Whereas Standard printed the full body picture on Page 2, Nation shelved it altogether and instead published on Pages 4-5 a photo showing the body from a considerable distance, with the soldiers on guard dominating the foreground.
The media generally avoids publishing pictures of the dead. News coverage of funerals does not include showing audiences the body, even when mourners file past an open coffin to pay their last respects.
The Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism in Kenya has an article on “Obscenity, taste and tone in reporting”. It only says, “Publication of photographs showing mutilated bodies, bloody incidents and abhorrent scenes shall be avoided unless the publication or broadcast of such photographs will serve the public interest”.
Kibaki’s body was obviously not mutilated, bloody or abhorrent. But did publication of the photos serve any defensible public interest? Why were three papers – Nation, Standard and PD – clearly reluctant to use the most powerful picture of the day?
Viewing of the body is fairly common in Kenyan funerals. But many people find this distressing. And, certainly, children aren’t allowed to view a body, except maybe that of a close relative. One is never sure how a child may react. It is possible children could be traumatised.
The strongest argument for publishing images of Kibaki’s body (or Moi’s in 2020) is that lying in state was a national event. The nation was mourning. The President was there, as were top government officials, politicians, the clergy and the rest of the who’s who in the country. The body was on public display, had been prepared for that ceremony and so there was nothing wrong publishing the images.
But it is also true that many people are uncomfortable around a dead person. Kenyans could still pay their last respects to Kibaki with his body inside a coffin. Think about the children. It would have been far easier for them to file past a coffin than a body lying on a table.
The full picture of a dead person on the front page of a newspaper or in a TV news broadcast is simply too graphic. That some Kenyans had the nerve to go to Parliament to view Kibaki’s body cannot be taken to mean everyone is at ease seeing a dead person.
It was not ethically prudent to splash those images on newspaper pages or to beam such distressing footage endlessly on TV.
