The razzmatazz of Christmas and New Year festivities has died down. All one hears now is the usual crowing of roosters that survived the feasting and the monotonous braying of tired donkeys (Star, January 5, p.4). Lo, reads like an evocative paragraph from Ngugi wa Thiongo’o’s writings. A perfect picture of January in rural Kenya. Could it be why smart people allegedly read The Star?
2026 set to be year of political tsunami (Star, January 5, p.11). What tsunami? Intro: This year is starting with great expectations that it will be a defining year ahead of the general election in 2027. Alah! What’s the news? This is a speech – a boring one.
This framework safeguards opportunities for bright girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, who form the core focus of the institution (Standard, January 6, p.3). Oya, leave “disadvantaged background” and similar euphemisms to PR practitioners and NGOs. In journalism we say it straight: bright girls from poor families.
A man has been found guilty of killing his former wife’s lover by stabbing him several times in an attack that took place six years ago in Nyandarua County (Standard, January 7, p.3). Bure kabisa, this fella. Now, “stabbing him several times” was obviously “in an attack that took place”. So, those are six wasted words. Remove them and the sentence still makes perfect sense.
But with barely a year to the next election, Uhuru’s political fortunes appear to have shifted dramatically (Standard, January 7, p.6). Enyewe Mugathe appears to be doing well politically, but this is January 2026. The next election on August 10, 2027 is 19 months from now. That is more than – not “barely”/hardly/just – a year away, you catch?
Shadow men: Inside elite military units that keep at bay dogs of war (Nation, January 7, p.3). They are men of valour who shape history in the dark. Excellent piece on US Army’s Delta Force, US Navy SEALS and KDF’s Special Operations Brigade. But are they only men, as Daily Nation suggests? There are no women in the US Navy SEALS yet. But US Delta Force and KDF Special Operations have elite women of war.
Raila’s State House birthday celebration that never was (Nation, January 8, p.10). Intro: Had history tilted just slightly in August 2022, Raila Amolo Odinga might have marked his 81st birthday yesterday not in solemn remembrance but on the manicured lawns of State House – as Kenya’s fifth president, surrounded by aides, family and the burdens of power he pursued for decades. All true. But what is the news in this wishful reminiscing, jameni? Why should anyone read it? Even a good first-year journalism student would wonder what this tale is all about.
As investigations into the collapse of a building in South C continues (continue), professional associations in the built environment have painted a grim picture of construction safety in Nairobi, warning that only 15 per cent of buildings in the city are structurally safe (Standard, January 9, p.9). What is wrong with this intro? Too long at 43 words. Aim for 25. And then the most newsy – and alarming – point is buried under a heap of words. Rewrite starting: Only 15 per cent of buildings in Nairobi are structurally safe…That is called effective communication.
Medics from the United States and India will be the most affected if Kenya stops renewing licences for foreign doctors (Star, January 9, p.2). Oh, really? Next: The two countries have consistently been the source of most foreigners working as doctors in Kenya. Source of this info? Para 9 has stats of foreign doctors in the country in 2018-19. But info is not attributed to any source. That is sloppy journalism.
