A post-election violence victim in Kenya (Nation photo)
There is a saying in our trade that the difference between journalists and doctors is that the latter publish their mistakes – while the doctors bury theirs.
There was a reminder of that yesterday (January 23), when the International Criminal Court in The Hague, confirmed charges against four Kenyans for their alleged role in the post-election wave of bloodletting in the country following the disputed December 2007 election.
The Pre-Trial Court ruled that Deputy Prime Minister and minister of Finance Uhuru Kenyatta, former Higher Education minister William Ruto, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, and Kass FM Radio programmes chief and presenter Joshua Sang should stand trial for the violence in which nearly 1,500 people were killed and another 600,000 people were displaced. Most of the IDPs have not yet been resettled.
Former Police chief Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali and former Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey were left off the hook.
Sang was always out of place among these political heavies and rich men. One time, media reports had him worrying about how he will pay his legal fees and manage the costs of travelling up and down to The Hague for the hearings.
Sang looked such an odd man out, and seemed to be so insignificant in the overall scheme of things, that law Professor Makau Mutua penned a memorably withering column in Sunday Nation, East Africa largest circulating newspaper, speculating that the ICC would dismiss the case against him. Makau took such a dim view of Sang’s stature that in a column of about 850 words, he managed to describe him severally as “small fish”, “small fry”, “marginal”, “inconsequential” and, I think, a “no body” several times!
If the stories are to believed, Sang is the one suspect against whom there was the hardest evidence that you can touch or hear – recordings of his programme. It is a lesson that other journalists would do well to remember—their great works as well as sins are always out there in print, recordings, and video.
The Kass man’s case, “small fish” as he might be, is also the one that probably resonated most outside Kenya. There are echoes with Radio Milles Collines, which infamously fuelled the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 in which at least one million people were slaughtered. The Democratic Republic of Congo also endured the ill effects of hate radio, as did Ivory Coast.
Yet, there is a big blind spot. In Kenya, the fashion is to blame FM stations, short message services (SMS), and bloggers for inciting the hatred that led to the post-election violence (PEV) and kept it going for days. International studies of the PEV have also been fascinated by the use of new technology in that Kenyan tragedy. One of the most interesting of these perhaps being that done by the Berkman Centre for Internet & Society at Harvard University (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/2008/Digitally_Networked_Technology_Kenyas_Post-Election_Crisis).
However, the SMS, blogs, and FM stations were merely the scaffolding on a more troubling architecture of Kenyan politics built by a large section of the mainstream media – the newspapers and TVs (especially the commentariat and punditocrats who dominate the political talk-shows).
The mainstream media have escaped serious scrutiny partly because they have a long and prestigious history, and most of its key leaders are deeply entrenched in the Old Boy and Establishment network in Kenya, thus fairly protected.
A close scrutiny, however, paints a troubling picture of their role. The big media in Kenya like to label, and use this as a powerful tool to order the society. Shortly after President Mwai Kibaki and his National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) came to power at the end of December 2002 (fresh from being the first opposition party in Eastern Africa to defeat a long-ruling government), a group of old political, social, and business friends quickly coalesced around him.
Nothing unusual there, as an inner circle is a perversity of nearly every African, European, Asian, or American State House. The big Kenya media dubbed the Kibaki inner circle the “Mount Kenya Mafia”. With every other day, the narrative of a dangerous “Mt. Kenya Mafia” evolved, and by the time of the election they had come to embody the Devil incarnate that must be got rid of.
This contributed to the siege mentality that took hold in Central Kenya, and fanned its insecurity about one of its own losing power in 2007.
The fractious coalition eventually collapsed in the 2005 Constitution Referendum, in which now Prime Minister Raila Odinga (then Works minister) broke ranks with Kibaki and led a rebel group of NARC ministers and MPs to oppose the constitution. They defeated the constitution in the referendum, and a wounded Kibaki struck back by sacking them.
They then formed the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), and set upon preparing to face Kibaki off in the disastrous 2007 poll. To bundle together the political capital that the ODM heavyweights had, and avoid a split before elections, Raila formed a shared leadership, the ODM Pentagon, with Ruto, Tourism minister Najib Balala, former Industralisation minister Henry Kosgey, Deputy Prime Minister and Local Government minister Musalia Mudavadi, and Cooperative Development and Marketing minister Joseph Nyagah.
Perhaps because Raila has a putschist background and Ruto was a little too vehement in his militancy, the media took to describing the ODM Pentagon in military terms as the “the ODM Brigade”.
ODM members ceased being called activists or supporters and became “troops”. The drama of a “Mt. Kenya Mafia” in a race to the death at the polls against an “ODM Brigade” and its “troops” had been written and slowly rolled on to a catastrophic end.
It was left to the commentators on TV and columnists to pour on the accelerator fuel. Respectable columnists, as early as 2004, were calling on Kibaki to deal with the cabinet with “Machiavellian firmness”. It was common to read or hear on TV references to kings and generals who killed dissidents.
The foundation for the hate speech and slash-and-burn blogging and short messaging that Kenya saw in 2007 had been well set early.
The final act that radicalised the election contest is the tradition of many mainstream Kenya media outlet to sideline what they consider as “minor” candidates. This is harmful because, in the first place, the supporters of the “minor” candidates feel rejected and become angry. Secondly, and most damaging, you could literarily see the campaigns of the “major” candidates developing the sense that they were ordained to win. Defeat was not an option.
You read the campaign coverage of that time; you wouldn’t find any reporting about the possibility of a candidate like (now) Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka pulling off an upset.
The big media then went on to largely ignore many of the early warnings of trouble. Reporters were being beaten or turned away from rallies; vans carrying newspapers were being held up and burnt; and journalists were transferring out of some areas because they were from the “wrong” tribe. Blithely, the mainstream media soldiered on as if nothing were amiss.
By November 2007 a deep sense of frustration had developed with the big media. However, unlike years past, there was a solution for those who wanted to have their voices heard– the Internet and mobile phones.
The rest, as they say, is history. In the last nearly one year in which the story of the “Ocampo Six” was big, there was no hint that the media had learnt its lessons. It (or better still WE) probably won’t, until it goes through a very public acknowledgement of error and honestly discusses its failings and culpability in 2007.
Indeed, at the height of the preliminary hearings at The Hague last year, it took an online boycott campaign and petition by Kenyans to frighten the media into turn down the volume on the “Ocampo Six” hysteria.
©Charles Onyango-Obbo / twitter@cobbo3
Sang was an indictment of Kenya’s media. For the sake of Kenya, I really hope that the media, and us on the social-media will learn something from all this. We definitely can’t afford to have a repeat of 2007/8 fiasco.
From an senior insider, this is explosive reading!
Perhaps your insightful analysis and spirit of self-criticism comes a little too late for the PEV victims, as commentary usually does, but not too late for the media in general (mainstream and all).
Yes..You are SPOT ON. The media is obsessed about this dubious characters. Their tone of late is very supportive to the ICC suspects who have been charged of mass myrder, mass rape, forcible expulsion and other heinous crimes. The main newspapers and their online, radio departments need to be REINED in.
Obbo,…..it is good to see what some members of the fourth Estate are willing to admit. But I hope it moves towards,…if not a deserved mea culpa,…..a recalibration of the media’s attitude and serious questioning of what it’s role to society should be.
Thanks for starting a blog,….I seriously can’t help laughing!!
This is refreshing, coming from the high echelons of the mainstream media. As the next elections in Kenya approach, one hopes that those at the helm of the major media houses will reflect on what you say here and use the power they wield to hold the country together and not tear it asunder
If one does an insightful analysis you can tell which media stations are partisan and lack an objective eye. As campaigns run you note there will be favoring of certain parties at the expense of others. What am simply saying is the lessons that ought to have been learnt evaded the one sector that is trusted and weilds the power to solely is break or make Kenya!!
the script well deserving of an applause…the problem!the media does not know the role they play or played in being part of the broad act of viloence in 2007/08 and now.e.g as much as ocampo said kibaki chaired a “mungiki” meeting did they have to say it?write it?i may not be a pro in mass psychology but what this does is segregates,angers the other ODM/ruto sympathisers who will start asking why is it that “our” pple are facing hague n kibaki isnt?then we go back to fuelling act by the media in the name of making quick bucks n selling the news at the expense of their country,then the big act of violence….
I hope all media guys are reading this more so i was buffled by the fact that just b4 the confirmation hearings they went to Eldoret Gatundu and Meru soliciting comments n even if no one had thought abt that they had to say something bcos they were asked. If that was not fueling anxiety n fanning reaction i dont know wot is. I hope all media people can think straight from now on.
Obbo, you are absolutely right. I have personally raised alarm over some very obviously biased reporting on the Hague business, specifically, over a report on ‘Three Sides of a Coin’ which was not only very incendiary, but distorted the facts regarding PEV, suggesting that the killings in Naivasha were justified because the Mungiki suspects committing the crimes were ‘preventing an army from marching onto Nairobi to start civil war’. The report was compiled by a respected reporter, and was shocking because it raised one issue you have overlooked in your commentary – the fact that media houses are ‘owned’ by people with political interests. Stories are therefore edited according to these political interests. And they will continue to be. That Prof. Mutua article you mention was edited, no? If not, it was accepted on the merit of the Prof. ‘knowing’ someone higher up in the organization of the paper in which the article was published.
My point? What the commentarians and punditocrats perform on TV and radio is secondary to media ownership, and that’s a fact. We like to imagine a media-state owned by the ‘people’, but that untrue. Who owns these TV stations, Radio stations and print presses? Which side of the fence are they currently standing? Media has oscillated between ‘Hague’ and ‘local process’ in tandem with how sections of politicians swing. During the PEV, diverse stations spewed out that their owners wanted them to say, causing confusion and fanning the flames of violence. The media is not looking to learn any lessons at the end of the day. The main aim is to drive forward the juggernaut of clientelism and capitalism. That is the inconvenient truth.
After that we went into a referendum that well shaped our future do you want the media to turn a blind eye as the same principles that govern the country becomes mutilated by tyrants its high time that Kenyans grow up and think straight the media politicians and tribal leaders should not be our priorities
Thanks for such a nice article.
Obbo, I agree with Mbwana – you were spot on! The media is the one that fuelled the violence, period. When everyone sought refuge in their television at the time of the clashes, all we kept being shown was old footage of Kenya on fire. And they talked and talked and talked and kept fuelling the flames with their statements and commentaries. I believe that if the Media Owners Association of Kenya could have a meeting and agree not to air clips or news items that would fuel hatred during such delicate moments, we would overcome.
The mainstream media (read KTN, NTV and Citizen TV stations) should know that a lot of Kenyans (I included) stopped watching Prime-time news beyond the headlines a long, long time ago because of their irrational, hysterical, offensive and mediocre reporting and coverage
true this is very true
a step in the right direction….may be too late for a mea culpa but certainly a reason for the fourth estate to take a second look at everything else/…….good read Obbo….
You forgot to mention the ‘Advertiser’s advertisments’ that ran from a few months prior to the elections which were personal targets to politicians and their political parties. You cannot air an ‘Advertiser’s advertisment’ just to benefit from income generation without taking into account the impact of those words. & yes, the habit of using words that in the long run can be affiliated to instability just has to stop e.g. ‘Warring Camps’. Problem is, being who they are, they wont stop doing what they are doing. The big picture is without stability there is no economic growth meaning businesses collapse and eventually they too will have no jobs! They need to get serious.
The only thing we can do is hope that journalists who control the most powerful tool in anything will learn a lesson from Sang’s fate. Am sorry for Sang, fate and his actions chose him to be an example to the rest if us.LETS NOT REPEAT THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE!
Watching the ongoing DAVOS commentary on CNBC and Bloomerg, then following the people’s sentiments on BBC, it becomes clear that one would rather live in Kenyan and watch Kenyan news delivered by foreign media. They seem to get it. Their Kenyan counterparts are eh!
Thank you for this article, I couldn’t have said it better myself. The Kenyan media tend to undermine their role in our society. Sure they know the power they hold in making/shaping the country, but their priorities lie in making profits.
Truth be told the editorial policy is really wanting. one media station is outrightly pro establishment and spews their opinions as news. in school we were taught opinions and news are two very separate issues and should be cleary labael. i have a big problem of personal biased opinion of especially some un informed journalist passing as news.
Brain-washing definitely didnt end with colonialism.Do not even call them mainstream media, they are a far cry from that.Am craving for a media outfit that addresses real life issues like education, health, growth opportunities, technology, globalisation etc. To me Uhuru, Muthaura,Ruto,Sang are neither news nor issues, period.
May be we will never learn…….i respect other people’s opinions and political affiliations……what baffles me is how a respectable media can follow the suspects right from JKI(Airport) to Uhuru park…….after they returned from The Hague…..What does Ruto, Uhuru and their ilk have to offer this country except loot what is already left…..just like the other current leaders…….may be ……just may be except Peter Kenneth and may be just may be Tuju……My heart bleeds for Kenya…….It bleeds for Africa…..Oh Lord where will we ever get selfless leaders???????