Bye, until 2027. Well, not quite. Until after swearing in The 5th. Campaigns for the next election in Kenya commence immediately one election is done and dusted. So, a new season unfolds as early as next month.
But the 2022 campaign season is well and truly over. How was the media coverage? What are your main takeaways?
Maybe not so fast. We are all fatigued and sore from the frenetic, ceaseless electioneering. Trying to catch a breath. Still groping in the fog of the season’s end. Things will certainly get clearer in the coming days, after we’re a bit rested from it all and can take stock with a cool head. As we stated weeks back, the media is on the ballot on August 9.
But we can make a few preliminary observations as we wait for the fog to clear, shall we?
First up: Solutions journalism “took centre stage” – as an excellent political reporter might write. From day-to-day news reporting to live interviews, breakfast radio and TV current affairs shows, updates online, expert commentary, to the televised governor and presidential candidate debates, no news consumer can honestly claim ignorance of what this election is about.
All the major national problems and their proposed solutions dominated news content: poverty, unemployment, hunger, disease, insecurity, education, land, corruption, trade, sports, drugs and substance abuse, gender, name it, all were amplified in the election coverage.
In the end, only four candidates were cleared for the presidential race: George Wajackoya, William Ruto, David Mwaure and Raila Odinga. What each proposed to do to solve the country’s key challenges is now widespread public knowledge, thanks to extensive media coverage.
Amilcar Cabral taught us that: “Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children.”
That’s what the 2022 election is about. Detailed reviews and analysis of how the media performed in its coverage of individual issues would make fascinating reading.
Second: Media prioritised peace messaging. Violence is a permanent feature of Kenyan elections. The fact that democracy is a contest of ideas is yet to sink in the minds of many citizens and the political class. Our civic culture is in many ways immature.
So, you have to teach people that peace is important. That they can disagree without stooping too low to intimidation and violence. That an eye for an eye would in a very short period leave the entire country blind. That one of the outstanding differences between a human being and an animal – owing to our larger and more complex brain – is capacity for nonviolent resolution of conflicts.
Throughout this campaign, the media has trumpeted messages of peace. In this way, the Fourth Estate has played a singularly commendable role in public education and civic character development.
How about the failures? They were glaring.
In this election some of Kenya’s leading media houses stopped being watchdogs, educators, and holders of power to account, and unashamedly transmogrified into cheerleaders for their favourite presidential candidate.
Not only did some politicians complain about and provide evidence of open bias, but a survey by the Media Council of Kenya also unquestionably established this as a fact. It wasn’t just a perception.
Or how do you explain the fact that Meru Senator Mithika Linturi reaped screaming headlines and denunciation in editorials when he uttered the word “madoadoa” at a rally, but when Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga used the same word there was hardly any reporting of it?
Results of presidential opinion polls were splashed with relish, sometimes without even interrogating certain aspects of the numbers that did not add up. The Media Observer has pointed this out in previous articles.
As early as April, retired Bishop David Oginde, a columnist with The Standard, wrote that:
“Unfortunately, there is a growing trend in our society in which prominent journalists and leading opinion writers are enlisted by politicians to sell a partisan agenda. In some cases, whole media houses have been entrapped into becoming mouthpieces of a political party or a particular candidate. They thus tilt the news and commentaries, ever so subtly, in favour of their masters – thus giving us distorted truth or outright lies”.
Was the man of God crying wolf? You may have read or watched a news story where the reporter cited anonymous authority to sway audiences. “Analysts say/agree”, yet no analyst was named or quoted.
Kionjo tu. Get more incisive dissection of media reporting of the 2022 election in coming issues of The Media Observer.
See you next week!
