We start with the good. The announcement of the “much-awaited” Hustler Cabinet on Tuesday, September 27, was the biggest story of the week. President William Ruto unveiled his team in a televised address to the nation from State House.
In the era of 24-hour news cycle, everyone learns of important events almost instantly. Kenyans who had not tuned in to TV or radio got the news from immediate updates on websites and other social media platforms.
For prime time bulletins and the next day’s paper, editors had to scratch their heads for new angles to a story that nearly everyone already knew. When the big story breaks, TV and radio give you the faces and sound bites, fast. A newspaper fills you in on the details, later.
On Thursday, September 29, The Standard carried by far the best coverage of this story. Headlined, “No easy road for Hustler Cabinet”, the Mombasa Road splash is indisputably a textbook example of top-notch journalism.
The story on pages 4-5 presented all the new CSs and what awaits them in their dockets. It takes excellent research and a keen grasp of government to give readers details of pending business from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to the Ministry of Defence.
A scribe worth the name must know everything – almost. You have your finger permanently on the pulse of the nation. You know what works, and what doesn’t, who is doing what, where, when, with whom, why and how. You can’t tell your audience credible stories about stuff you don’t know. Journalists bear a heavy responsibility of empowering citizens with information to understand and participate meaningfully in public affairs that affect them.
With that story, The Standard discharged this professional duty with admirable competency. Kudos!
And now for the bad and ugly. We head to Lion Place, up on Waiyaki Way where the famous Nairobi Expressway begins – or ends, depending on your destination.
The Star wrote a bad story. You are a D student if you hand in a class assignment based entirely on a single opinion. Where is your research? Where is your thinking? Where is your fairness? Where is your integrity as a factual and ethical chronicler of public affairs, a professional communicator and writer of the first drafts of history?
The splash was titled, “Jitters in Musalia camp as job deadline lapses” (September 27, p.1). It appeared on the day President Ruto named his Cabinet. Kicker: “Mudavadi team said to be gasping for breath as midnight Tuesday approaches”.
President Ruto had promised to name MaDVD the Prime Cabinet Secretary within a fortnight of winning the election. That deadline was lapsing, and MaDVD’s people were barely breathing, Lion Place reported.
“Honestly, there is anxiety and eagerness with very few hours left before we cross into the D-Day, perhaps it will happen now or later. It is a concern, I must tell you”, an unnamed senior ANC politician told The Star. He said they were “gasping for breath”.
And this pedestrian comment, this rumour, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, was enough to build upon the entire front-page story of a national newspaper.
The rest of the story carried contrary comments, including the President himself insisting there was nothing to worry about, that the ANC supremo would get the promised job.
“But former Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala, a key Mudavadi confidant, downplayed the fears saying they are confident the President will create the Prime Cabinet Secretary position, ‘thought there could be slight delays’”.
“Ruto has, however, continuously stated that he will honour all his promises and on Sunday lauded Mudavadi and National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula for joining him at his lowest moment”.
Details of the Kenya Kwanza deal follow. Several paragraphs down, the story reports about other campaign promises the President fulfilled right from the day of his inauguration: appointed six appeal judges, restored Mombasa port functions, lowered fertiliser prices.
“While chairing the first meeting of Kenya Kwanza elected leaders on August 17, Ruto assured Mudavadi would be the Prime Cabinet Secretary”, the report said.
“Political analyst Joseph Mutua said the President will certainly create the position since he is keen on retaining the support of the Luhya community”.
Further down, political commentator Fred Sasia is quoted as saying: “He will eventually create this position, probably to appease the Western Kenya voters and award one of his senior campaigners, Musalia Mudavadi”.
Now, if you are a journalist interested in the truth, and you have interviewed knowledgeable persons and gathered other information that tells you President Ruto would appoint MaDVD Chief Cabinet Secretary as he promised in their pre-election pact, which you quote, how do you then write a story under the headline, “Jitters in Musalia camp as job deadline lapses”?
You have absolutely zero evidence, just hot air, about MaDVD’s team “gasping for breath”. Yet this is what you choose to go by.
Mhenga fulani alisema gazeti ni ya kufu…ah, we don’t want to repeat that here. But, jameni, is this not dragging journalism in the mud?
