Why the proposed Media Bill is ‘almost perfect’

Journalists in Nairobi protest against the proposed Media Bill./mapambano

The proposed media bill has not only appalled many but also cast doubts as to whether good state-press relations will ever find a footing in a country that preaches democracy and practices something else.

Leaders from every nook and cranny have poured vitriol on Members of the Kenyan parliament for passing what experts term as a “repressive and unconstitutional” law, which is alleged to strip any remaining freedom from the media.

A fortnight ago, former vice president Kalonzo Musyoka warned of a return to dictatorship if MPs keep alive their efforts to gag the press and silence the civil society, the only remaining critics of the present government.

Poured vitriol

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga echoed his sentiments, and called for a free press.

As deputy president William Ruto exudes confidence that the president will not sign the bill, all eyes now focus on the president, waiting to see if he will make good his promise.

President Kenyatta says he will not sign the bill before ironing out contentious issues with all stakeholders; a local daily quoted him as saying.

An expert privy to the contents of the contentious bill intimated that some parts are good as they will promote professionalism in the media industry, while other parts of the same bill remained vague and potentially punitive to media houses and journalists.

“The media should be left to self regulate themselves like other professions. For instance, lawyers have the Law Society of Kenya, teachers have the Teachers Service Commission, while doctors have the Medical Practitioners Board.” Says Mr. Kerich, an expert in media relations.

“I do not see why the media council should not be strengthened to regulate the press that is in line with international standards.’ Adds Mr.Kerich.

Trying sheep in a hyenas court

According to the proposed bill, the government will form a vague board that will regulate what the media reports, and unfortunately, no member of the said board is a journalist.

“This is ridiculous.  It is like trying sheep in a hyena’s court and expecting justice.” chided another expert.

The bill also proposed exorbitant fines for individual journalists who are caught on the wrong side of the law.

“Errant journalists will part with at least Shs 1 Million, same applies to the media houses,” Said Henry Onchoka, a media consultant.

The crime might be something as minor as “failing to separate facts from opinion,” he adds.

Onchoka says this will result to a suppressed media so fearful to report the happenings and risk going out of business due to such sanctions as heavy fines and threats to their reporters.

Journalists summoned

A fortnight ago, Kenyans reeled in shock after the government summoned two journalists for exposing and portraying the police as thieves.

Mohamed Ali and John Allan Namu of the Standard Group had aired CCTV footage allegedly showing Kenya Defence Forces soldiers carrying bulging white plastic bags bearing the logos of Nakumatt supermarket, as they tried to secure the Westgate Mall following an attack by the Somalia militant group Al Shabaab.

Interior cabinet secretary Joseph Ole Lenku was quoted as saying that the journalist duo acted as if they were glorifying the terrorists and vehemently denied the soldiers looted as claimed.

An army spokesperson reportedly said the security forces were carrying drinking water from the supermarket which was located inside the mall.

Lenku later admitted that some soldiers looted, and sure enough, a few were dismissed and arraigned in courts.

“A case in point is that if the media did not expose the rot at the Westgate, no one could ever know thus they must be allowed of their place as the fourth estate,” added the expert.

“This is vendetta; I believe the MPs are trying to silence the media after they have been portrayed as greedy and selfish since claiming a salary increment.

This is not how democracies work. They  (parliamentarians) are public officers and the public must know what their representatives are doing,” says Kerich.

Weed out quacks

“They should give media a chance to do their work, and I am still waiting to see how this works out because the politicians are also the guys who own the media houses.” Adds Onchoka.

“However, we must agree that the same bill seeks to streamline the profession and also to create more employment.  If those contentious issues are solved, I think we have a very good and realistic bill here,” says Onchoka.

The bill proposes that at least 60 per cent of the broadcast content be local, thereby reviving the sick horse that is the film industry.

Currently, local media houses have been feeding their audience on cheap and third rate films from Nigeria and Asia, building foreign economies while depriving the local industry of massive income.

“Kenya boasts of top notch film makers and actors who can even hold a candle to their Nigerian counterparts, and it is sad we knowingly sit on our film industry, a local gold mine,” a top rated film maker lamented.

“Just recently, the government introduced Uwezo fund which is aimed at empowering the youth, and even film makers were not left behind. A fund was introduced to support those making good local content and this is a very good move as it will create jobs in this sector,”

The new bill also seeks to license all practitioners in a bid to weed out quacks who have infested the industry like fleas.

According to a highly placed expert who wished not to be named, the media industry is now “full of fame hungry pretenders and quacks, and just a few professionals,” that is why the best journalists are still jobless while people who have never seen the inside of a media school now ’rule the airwaves.”

Or rather, which other profession do we find people just joining without any vetting?

“In Kenya, you just need to get famous, and you get that media job, that is why we have some very irresponsible scribes,” said Job Kiarie, a media practitioner.

“We must be able to shield our institutions from a rogue parliament or else we go back to the dark oppressive days when Kenyans had to look over their shoulders before saying anything.” Maintains Mr. Kerich.

*Names have been edited to protect the identities of the respondents.

Coming to terms with the ‘White Widow’

Her name has been floated since the Westgate attack. Some claim that she might have been involved, others say she was a financier, while others just mention her name not knowing the role she played or even whether she was involved.

Samantha Lewthwaite is her name. She is also known as Sherafiya Lewthwaite or the “White Widow”.

And why the White Widow? Some may ask.

Samantha was married to Germaine Lindsay, a 7/7 suicide bomber who bombed a train in London killing 26 civilians.

Samantha, who converted to Islam at the age of 17, is said to have condemned her husband’s move, claiming that he was mislead by a few  extremists since he was a new convert.

And the White widow is not new to controversy. She is reported to have sold a story to the Sun for $30,000, a story claiming that she did not know her husband was involved in such acts of terror.

Forensic investigators into the incidence are said to have implicated her to the bombings saying she planned with the attackers’ way before the bombings.

Lewthwaite is also said to have been very serious about Islam after she converted.

She was so serious that she started isolating herself from others students and donning full length Islamic attire. She became an introvert, BBC reports.

Born in Banbridge, County Down to a former British soldier, Samantha was raised as a disciplined child, and her parents’ marriage was in constant problems, she is said to have been affected by that, thus seeking solace from their Muslim neighbors where she thought she could find peace, before converting to Islam.

Their parents finally separated and Samantha moved to Aylesbury,Buckinghamshire.

She met Lindsay in an Islam internet chat room and they consecrated their marriage months later in an elaborate Muslim wedding.

Lewthwaite is now believed to be a fugitive running from justice in Kenya, where she is accused to have been behind last year’s Mombasa bombing, where hundreds were attacked were watching the Euro 2012 tournament in a bar.

Media and security reports have linked Miss Lewthwaite to the September 21 attack of Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi.

She is 28.

Tough times as VAT law defiles Kenyans, condemns them to starvation

The stories of women roping their stomachs to appease the deadly pangs of hunger in far flung counties, of dying children and the blood cuddling pictures of starving, hunger stricken old women awaiting death now ring through the minds of most Kenyans as tough times reckon, this time round instigated by the same government that promised to shield its citizenry from starvation.

Tough times indeed for the common man.

It is now clear that Kenyan Members of Parliament (M.Ps) threw all caution to the wind and passed the now frowned upon and devastatingly unpopular Value Added Tax Bill (VAT Bill) that among other things sought to increase the prices for essential commodities like milk and flour, the staple for the common man. Consequently sending the cost of living to the rafters, and condemning Kenyans to a certain death knoll, death through starvation.

Death through starvation

It is common knowledge that most Kenyans live below the poverty line, or what the United Nations (U.N) describe as living below a Dollar a day.

And the move by the government can only sound like a sure death sentence.

The aftermath of the ripples created by the said law have been felt in every nook and cranny of the country, gripping a population with shock and disbelief.

The cost of everyday essentials, the basic needs like food has risen to unprecedented highs with a liter of processed milk now retailing for Shs.130, up from the previous cost of Sh. 75, the equivalent of one Dollar, while that of other commodities continue to compete on a free rise as unscrupulous traders connive with the government to rip off the already suffering Kenyan.

Majority of Kenyans eke out a precarious existence, some living off garbage while a raft of others sleep hungry hoping against hopes that tomorrow will be better, amid an avalanche of problems including run away corruption, high cost of living, poor sanitation due to a rise in population, mass unemployment, diseases ,poverty and deprivation.

Living below the poverty line

Unless the U.N redefines the popular cliché of “living below the poverty line” and sets it at three dollars a day, a colossal amount that most Kenyans will definitely not afford, it seems that one dollar can buy you nothing in Kenya now, save for a few rolls of chewing gum to assuage the dreadful pangs emanating from the empty stomach.

Or a  few rolls of toilet paper, a move which will be self defeating in that the trips to the lavatory will be infrequent and far between.

Tough times ahead

It beats logic to realize that a government cannot raise funds to finance its budget thereby resorting to hurting the already overtaxed Kenyan and subjecting him to untold suffering and hunger leaving him staring starvation, and death on the face.

And tough times are yet to come.

If Kenya Power, the company that supplies electricity decides to make good their threats of raising the cost of power due to the now effective VAT taxes, everything will shoot up, dealing the final and fatal blow to a population.

VAT Bill

The VAT Bill was passed in April 2013 and the president of the Republic of Kenya gave it the green light by assenting to its provisions, setting the stage for and seating as a judge in a case condemning Kenyans to” Death by Starvation”, and watching from the high table as the riffraff of the society, yours truly included, suffer from anguish and deprivation.

The Bill is reported to have imposed tax on previously zero rated items including foodstuff, bicycles, and a barrage of other basic necessities, only months after the new government assured Kenyans that the cost of living will be driven to an all time low and that essential goods will never be affected by the bill.

My crystal ball tells me that a hungry man is an angry man.

Kenyans are watching. Soon, push will come to shove and they will demand for justice.

Hut tax

A friend opined to this writer that during the colonial and postcolonial era, there were all sorts of taxes being levied to poor Kenyans, from the infamous hut tax, bicycle tax to a myriad of others, the government of the day defiled its populace left right and center, not only making life unbearable but also removing dignity from the very life, a scene that might sadly come back, half a century later.

I end where I started. The Kenyan scenario resembles the proverbial mother devouring her young ones.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. 

photo credits remain with respective owners.

Why Mutula’s autopsy report will never be released

His demise was a complete shocker to Kenyans.
 

A cabinet minister is found dead in his bedroom. A nation mourns. Jokes, facts, truths, propaganda and theories saturate the air.

A daily spectacularly claims he was assassinated, another chips in with a sordid claim that Mutula Kilonzo could have died of a Viagra drug overdose, a drug used to enhance stamina during sex.

Thousands of Kenyans take to social media sites Facebook and Twitter where they milk their theories dry, making wild claims and trading sick tirades. The onslaught continues…

Bloated with theories

Kenyans had been bloated with theories, information and misinformation about the death, while gutter press materials flew left right and center, quenching the massive demand for information.

Their editors go on overdrive, serving the population with uncalled for information and pure hogwash, the twists and turns changing faster than a chameleon changes colors.

Surely, everyone knew something about the mysterious death.

The government assures of a quick and transparent autopsy.

A private pathologist is flown into the country to oversee the whole process, transparency looks a sure bet, not the elusive character it was before.

After a few hours post mortem the media reports that all the pathologists were in agreement over the cause of Mr. Kilonzo’s death but surprisingly the results were to be released three months later.

Kenyans went on a daze. They had time to prove their theories and speculations right or wrong.

Few gave up, They were sure the results will never be made public. Thousands forgot.

Pockets of others hoped and waited with baited breath. They wanted to know what killed their cabinet minister.

Sinister motives

They accused the family of harboring sinister motives. Accusations were traded.

Fast forward to August 2013, more than three months later. Machakos senator Johnstone Muthama acting as the family spokesman drops the bombshell.

The family is going through a lot, including court cases and this is not the right time to release the results, he says. The results have to wait for another two months.

Deathly silence greets the announcement. Kenyans protest the declaration. Fingers are pointed at the family. 

 

Hushed tones claiming cover up start emanating from different quarters. Most whine and grumble. They had been shortchanged.

More mystery.

And the question goes unanswered, again.

What killed Mr. Mutula Kilonzo? Silence, more silence. Speculations.

And the anguish continues.

Where there is smoke there is fire. Maybe Kenyans were right. Maybe their speculations could hold water.

What if he was assassinated? We would like to know who did it and why?

And what if he had a visitor in the night preceding his demise, had fun but the reportedly blue drugs took the better off him? 

 

And what if some unknown assailant planted deadly chemicals in a bottle in his room and he drank the poison unknowingly?

And what if life had reached its natural run and it was his time to meet his creator?

Silence. More speculations.

The more things change the more they remain the same.

Someone tell us!

Not yet, Uhuru!: Fraud or blackmail? Tell us, Kethi

Not yet, Uhuru!: Fraud or blackmail? Tell us, Kethi: Her rise and fall read like a script from a Hollywood movie.  Many described her as a no nonsense young lady when she vigorous...

Fraud or blackmail? Tell us, Kethi

Her rise and fall read like a script from a Hollywood movie. 

Many described her as a no nonsense young lady when she vigorously argued cases at the Supreme court of Kenya, where she represented parties challenging the legitimacy of an Uhuru – Ruto presidential win.

She had made her name before. She had represented thousands in courts, was a daughter of a seasoned lawyer cum politician, but this particular case inked a permanent mark in her checkered career.

Three months down the line and her star is still shining bright. She was grooming herself to succeed her late father.

Her campaigns had hit feverpitch. What with denizens shouting and dancing themselves hoarse in praise of her name?

It was so clear she could have clinched the seat with a land slide win. But as fate would have it, she didn’t.

It was like De Ja Vu. Within weeks she was riding on an orgasmic wave, making news, chickening out her opponents in the race. But, within days, she was back in the courts, this time round, taking the stand reserved for the accused.

 A tribunal had to be formed to determine whether she had registered as a voter or not, a core qualification for anyone seeking political office.

It was helter skelter, the drama, the arguments, the heated submissions, the intrigues, and the hue by Kenyans who watched their inspiration being capitulated and annihilated on set. It was like a movie.

The Television cameras that made her a heroin were at it again, this time ready to undress and expose her to all.

It was a massive fall reminiscent of that from glory to grass.

Her political ambitions were hanging on a balance. Within days she had been declared unfit to run. All the political dreams she harbored were evaporating, and fast.

They say it doesn’t matter whether you fall, what matters is how fast you rise again and dust yourself up.

She proved her detractors wrong. She was made of sterner stuff.

She rose again, challenging the tribunal’s decision in the Court of Appeal which gave her the much needed lifeline.

Though she couldn’t seek election anymore, her party was given a green light to field another aspirant.

Her brother fitted the bill. He was made a king in a split second.

But her deterioration continued, it was like a bad strain of deadly cancer. Justice was after her neck.

She had helped thousands get the same justice, now roles have changed.

They say laws are cross cutting and apply to all and sundry. Sadly, the same courts that make heroes can also make villains.

Inasmuch as we loved you, there is this little thing you are not telling us. How and where did you get that voters card? You can opt to remain mum and wish the question away; unfortunately, the courts of law want the same questions answered.

Accusations of fraud, foul play, and mudslinging politics come at play. But the onus is on you alone to unleash the truth. Was it blackmail, fraud, foul play or mere poly-tricks?

We are listening……..

Kenyans will never learn! Here are the ingredients of post election violence

Lessons from the party nominations

Kenyan politics are made from stuff that can make the most dramatic soap operas and make the masters of all soaps, the Mexicans, proud, but the only tragedy with this political drama is, the precision at which they so predictably turn tragic.

Last week I witnessed a gang of men knock out three canines from a young lad who had allegedly fled with campaign money which had been dished out by a politician. 

The incident happened near Kangemi where, as has been the custom when big shot politicians come calling and hunting for votes, youths, market women, street children and people of all walks the streets of life line up for the windfall that will be dished out and not for the unending promises that politicians make.

Now, this lad happened to be so near to the campaign trucks and when that time came, he was among the ones who grabbed wads of notes from the grubby fingers of campaign mandarins, and as predicted, made a mad dash that could have made David Rudisha proud.

Drama unfolded when a 500 strong army of hungry youths and market women descended on him, eager to get something from the fall, and man! It was a sight to behold as people rushed, bashed, jostled for space and outran each other in hot pursuit of the money laden guy.

Tragedy strikes

After about ten minutes of the gold rush, the fleeing guy’s journey was cut short by one sweep that knocked him to the ground and within no time, he had been relieved of all the money.

The tattered notes, some torn in half and others into minute pieces were strewn all over the place, perhaps to serve as a reminder to the locals of their greed for money, and just for the record, I saw a guy gobble up a wad of notes into his mouth.

Worried man

I was a worried man. Worried because I expected that at this day and age people should act with a certain degree of civility. Who knows, if they lined up and shared the cash in a civilized way, maybe everyone could have gotten something to take home and no money could have been wasted. But then I realized it the same Kenyans who are dirt poor and can’t wait to lay their hands on the money, some just to feed themselves.

I am not about to preach civility to Kenyans, because I know will fair badly off. But it’s time we changed our archaic and barbaric ways as far as political campaigns are concerned.

At about the same time, just when I was chatting with a heavily inebriated youth who was weak enough not to fight for the windfall, tragedy stroke.

There were cries and shrieks but one particular horrific wail signaled danger.

A man’s eye had been gorged out, and three of his front teeth knocked off. Reason, he breached a contract.

On getting closer, I realize he is the same man who bolted with campaign cash. It was a plan, I learn, by a group of youth to run away with the cash and the man made a fatal error when he fell, denying the others their lion’s share of the loot. And that was the price to pay.

Now this is the tragedy

Every five years, Kenyans live in peace, tolerate each other and work together regardless of their tribes and political affiliations, but come electioneering period, and they turn against each other, thanks to politicians who successfully divide them along tribal lines and feed them with stolen cash.

Most people get a smattering amount of this campaign money, some getting as little as KShs 20, money that cannot even buy a packet of milk!

The party nominations came around last Thursday and anyone who witnessed the tragic drama can bear with me that violence, voter bribery, mass importation of voters and sheer anarchy ruled the exercise, shaming Kenya as a democracy.

Two pence

If what we saw in the sham party nominations was a sneak preview of the general elections, we better be prepared for more anguish, more pain, more internally displaced persons, more bloodshed, courtesy of we Kenyans for allowing the politicians to use us.

When politicians use money to control our minds, when the police will be caught unawares again, we are poised to have the mother of all post election violence!

I rest my case!