Media, help Kenyans to make viable plans for 2026

It is normal for people to nurse the hope that a new year will bring good tidings. Parents wish for good news about their children’s health, education and progress in life. Workers hope for better working conditions and salaries, but also affordable cost of life. Rulers dream of respectful and hardworking citizens. The citizens equally pray for servant leaders. Nearly every living human being who celebrates the turn of the year, in this case, under the Gregorian calendar, wishes for a better life than the immediate past.

Goals to be achieved in the new year are being set. Some will be shared with the ‘dreamer’s’ family, workmates, friends, neighbours, or the larger community. Some will remain private. Some will seek advice from others on how to make attainable plans; others will take risks. Some people will establish businesses, others will get married or change jobs or move to new neighbourhoods or leave the country or even return to Kenya. Change is in the air.

What about the media? Will it be the anchor that Kenyans desire to help them escape the stormy sea that has been 2025. Will it be the port of last call? Will it replenish the dreams of Kenyans? Or will our journalists also seek lifeboats in 2026? If Kenyans were to reach their desired destination, the media might have to be the calm pilot of a troubled ship. Why?

Consider the story in The Standard (Friday, December 05, 2025), ‘Ruto betrayed you.’ It almost suggests that the church’s audit of 2025 reveals that the government totally failed to perform its responsibilities. The statement by the National Council of Churches of Kenya painted a gloomy picture of a country headed in the wrong direction, and of a population devastated by economic difficulties. Fair enough. It appears that Kenyans are in a state of deferred dreams. What to do, for Kenyans?

Continue to despair? Blame the government more for the individual and collective troubles? Give up hope? Dream no more? No. Kenya hasn’t collapsed like some of its neighbours. Kenya cannot be said to be rudderless for as long as the media is still able to call out the president, even if they are merely reporting. The media can, and should, still play it’s agenda setting role. Cynicism aside, even those who claimed that newspapers are only good for wrapping meat, do read newspaper stories, watch TV, listen to the radio, and are active on social media.

The Kenyan media can, and should, declare some basic and attainable expectations that the government, county or national, should deliver to Kenyans. What about the little things that make everyday life manageable? Potable water, sewer system, free basic education, affordable gas/electricity, free basic healthcare for all, support for the elderly, job creation, affordable food etc. These things are found in manifestos of the ruling and opposing parties; in county and national government policies; in strategic plans of NGOs; in declarations by religious groups, etc. May the media remind all Kenyans that these dreams from the past could, and should, be revived in 2026, and be delivered as well.