Do not trust the Kenyan media.!!

If you trust the Kenyan media, then you are doomed!!

After the Second World War, the role of the media during and after the war came under scrutiny. Propaganda was rife in the media and the cold war was carried out through the media. This led to the normative theories like the authoritarian, the libertarian, social responsibility, soviet socialist theory to try and regulate the way the media operated.

The mainstream Kenyan media is owned by S.K Macharia (Royal media), Agha Khan (Nation Media Group), Moi (Standard group) if you trust the media, then you trust these few individuals.

These people most certainly have some political or economic interest which they may want to promote through these wide reaching outlets.

“The greatest threat to media freedom in Kenya today is not the government but the owners and the advertisers” senior MCK official.

Even though the Kenyan media must be commended for its contribution towards democracy, media freedom, human rights activism and all the other good things like the constitution; we must say that they have also been irresponsible on many occasions.

The Kenyan media is a bully.. always arm-twisting the government and even forcing public officials out of office. (They tried arm-twisting Kibaki but he didn’t budge. Former TJRC chairman was forced out of office because of the media, stepping aside of Wetangula, Kimunya, sacking of Ruto, Kosgey-these were all victims of irresponsible media activity) some who have fought back and sued are former minister Biwott, Martha Karua, wetangula)

There was a time PNU accused ODM of using the media for campaigns. According to them, the “captain” had to be shown in good light by the media. To achieve this, senior editors were to be paid to make sure this happened. Assuming this were true,  you can now see how the media can be used for self gain.

Former PM’s adviser Miguna Miguna has appeared not less than four times on K24 since the big fallout with Raila. Why? What interest does Jeff Koinange have? The answer is, he is driving an agenda (Must be anti Raila) It doesn’t have to be Jeff himself, but it could be the people pulling the strings. By the time they are done with Miguna, he should have torn Raila’s name into pieces.

What about these analysts brought into the studio to analyze politics? 

What the public doesn’t know is that by the time the media house is settling on David Makali, Ndolo, Paul Mwangi, Mutahi Ngunyi, Adams Oloo(we have seen less of him these days. Maybe he became irrelevant to some people) the media house has called close to ten analysts and decided on the one to air. (Probably that with the same views as the station)

And then why does it have to be Alex Chamwada covering most of ODM rallies and not Francis Gachuri (covers PNU) these are senior reporters and my guess is that they choose the rallies to go to or are given intentionally. How do you expect Chamwada to be objective when the top leadership of ODM (Raila Odinga and Mudavadi) stood with him when his father passed on? He probably thinks he owes them.

Despite all this, what do we Kenyans still do? When we want news on Al Shabaab, we run to the media, when we want politics, we run to the media!! Practically everything comes from the media!! Not knowing that the media is giving us what S.K. Macharia, Agha Khan, Moi and the other media owners had for lunch!

I could go on ranting but I would be interrupted by an incident of media irresponsibility!

“siasa za peni mbili”