Mastering the delicate art of interviewing guests in journalism takes hard years and painstaking sweat. It is always a constant learning process with both highs and lows. Even seasoned interviewers such as Yvonne Okwara (Citizen TV), Eric Latif (NTV), Linus Kaikai (Citizen TV), Joe Ageyo (NTV), Jeff Koinange (Citizen TV), Ken Mijungu (formerly KTN) and Ayub Abdikadir (Citizen TV) are ever learning, especially when interviewing tough and difficult guests.
Therefore, the major highlight of a good interview is the surprising revelations and fascinating insights from both the interviewer and the interviewee. A good interview essentially probes, like casting a beam of light into darkness to see what is hidden, or exposes what is invisible. More importantly, a good interview should not necessarily be confrontational – something bordering on an interrogation; it should balance between being tough and conversational.
Take President William Ruto’s interview of November 11 conducted at Kitui State Lodge during his four-day Ukambani tour. Sitting down with the national broadcaster, KBC, and a host of other vernacular radio and TV stations, the President discussed a wide range of ongoing Kenya Kwanza projects in the Eastern region. The two-hour interview session, led by Virginia Mwikali of Mwatu FM, touched on various issues: water problems in Ukambani and the construction of dams, insecurity, job creation programmes, the rollout of the Social Health Authority (including the goal to attain universal healthcare coverage) and the disbursement of Nyota grants to youth to enable them to start businesses.
The interview is worth watching, not necessarily because one agrees with Ruto’s remarks (politicians lie shamelessly all the time on national TV), but because of the vital lessons it has for other journalists. First, the reporters did not come to get the President. Instead, they came to ask questions that a majority of Kenyans are grappling with every day. The two-hour session is a perfect case study in what is expected of an interview. It’s devoid of annoying interruptions and interjections that are meant to disrupt the guest’s thought process, to push him in a tight corner and to make mistakes that are then used as ammunition to finish him off. Second, the journalists displayed a remarkable level of research, which is at the heart of a memorable interview. Isaac Chotiner, a writer who interviews for the New Yorker magazine, concurs about the research aspect: “Most of the interviews that I feel good about were ones where I had a lot of time to research. And I think you can tell that with all the best interviews.”
The insistence on the President to answer questions in Swahili was another huge plus for the interviewers. As earlier noted, a majority of the reporters work in vernacular stations, meaning their target audience are people who are more comfortable with either their mother tongue or Swahili. Swahili is also Kenya’s national language, spoken virtually by everyone. It’s thus a marker of national identity and pride and connects people across ethnic and social divides with ease, unlike English. The Head of State, like most educated Kenyans, during the interview, was constantly tempted to respond in English, but a gentle nudging from the host brought him back to the preferred language of hustlers and mama mbogas. When it comes to audience connection, the medium of expression matters, and the journalists clearly got the brief. This is another important lesson about creating a rapport with the guest in order to set the mood and tone of the interview.
However, while some critics might argue that the interview would not have taken a different turn because KBC and its affiliate radio and TV stations are government entities (meaning the President is the employer of those interviewing him), that still misses the mark. In the digital age with its highly knowledgeable and alert audiences, even the national broadcaster is acutely aware they cannot get away with laundering propaganda disguised as an interview. Their listeners and viewers would swiftly call them out. The close to 10 journalists who converged at the Kitui State Lodge were well aware of that reality and gave their best. Hongera to all of them.
