Journalism Kenyan style

NAIROBI — Over the years I’ve come to view the Kenyan media with a mixture of respect and affection.
In the 1990s, I watched in awe as Kenyan photographers dodged Daniel arap Moi’s club-wielding riot police. When their colleagues in the newsroom exposed financial scandals, ranging from Goldenberg to Anglo Leasing, I pasted their articles into my files. Like the press pack anywhere, Kenyan journalists liked their beer and could wolf down a buffet in a heartbeat, and the odd brown envelope definitely changed hands. But they were brave. “The best press in Africa,” I told anyone who cared to listen.

So Kenya’s recent election has been a baffling, frustrating time.

In the last few weeks, Western journalists — myself included — have become pariahs, lambasted by Kenya’s twitterati and Facebook users for our coverage and threatened by the government with deportation.

The fury seems exaggerated, given the relative rarity of offending articles. Western reports have attracted undue interest, I’m convinced, because domestic coverage, while increasingly slick, has been so lifeless. It sometimes feels as though a zombie army has taken up position where Kenya’s feisty media used to be, with local reporters going glaze-eyed through the motions.

This malaise was most obvious last week during briefings by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission at the tallying center in Bomas, just outside Nairobi, when what had been billed as a high-tech, tamper-proof election began to unravel spectacularly. The Kenyan media of old would have gone for the jugular. But when the commission chairman, Issack Hassan, after describing yet another puzzling technical glitch or mysterious delay, asked, “Any questions?” the response was stunned silence.

It was the same when independent election monitors announced their findings. Given just how many anomalies were surfacing, the upbeat assessments of observers from the African Union, the European Union and the Commonwealth seemed inexcusably complacent. Yet once again, Kenyan journalists left most of the questions to their Western counterparts.

Lethargy should not be mistaken for laziness. Yes, rumors are swirling about payoffs and conflicts of interest. But this professional surrender, ironically, appears to stem from the very best of intentions.

During the violence that followed the 2007 election, when militias burned families out of their houses and executed members of rival ethnic communities, Kenya’s media played a not-entirely-innocent role. Hate speech spread by vernacular radio stations and via SMS egged on the men with machetes, just as they once had in Rwanda. One of the three indictees facing trial before the International Criminal Court in The Hague is Joshua arap Sang, who ran the Kalenjin-language radio station Kass FM.

Chastened by that experience, media executives reached a gentlemen’s agreement to avoid anything that might whip up ethnic tensions ahead of this year’s election. There would be no live coverage of announcements or press conferences by political parties.

“Last time,” the media “were part of the problem,” a Kenyan broadcaster told me. “They were corrupted; they were irresponsible. So this time there was a feeling that we had to keep everyone calm, at the expense, if necessary, of our liberties.”

But self-censorship comes at a price: political impartiality. The decision not to inflame ethnic passions meant that media coverage shifted in favor of whoever took an early lead, in this case Uhuru Kenyatta.

Hours after the CORD alliance of the opposition leader Raila Odinga announced that it wanted the tallying of ballots stopped and an audit conducted, Kenyan radio D.J.’s were still cheerfully assuring listeners that everything was on track. That may have prevented passions in Odinga’s Luo community from exploding, but it was a massive distortion of the truth.

Patrick Gathara
The local media swiftly fell into the habit of brushing off CORD’s declarations. Television broadcasts of Odinga’s announcement that he would challenge the outcome of the election before the Supreme Court switched to Uhuru’s acceptance speech before the Q. and A. with Odinga had even begun. By this Wednesday, Kenya’s largest newspaper devoted more space to the selection of a new pope than to the lawsuits being prepared by CORD and civil society groups.

The Kenyan media’s self-restraint reveals a society terrified by its own capacity for violence. “What maturity is this that trembles at the first sign of disagreement or challenge?” asked the Kenyan cartoonist Patrick Gathara in a superb blog post, citing a national “peace lobotomy.” He went on: “What peace lives in the perpetual shadow of a self-annihilating violence?”

Shortly before handing Uhuru his winner’s certificate, the chairman of the election commission congratulated the Kenyan media on their “exemplary behavior.” As he did, the screen above his head was showing figures that did not add up.

Any journalist worth their salt should start feeling itchy when praised by those in authority. The recent accolades will chafe as more polling irregularities become public.

The media should be asking themselves whether, in their determination to act responsibly, they allowed another major abuse to occur right before their eyes.

Simple technology could change sub-Saharan African soil

“I wish we could persuade more farmers in sub-Saharan Africa that there are affordable, often less labourintensive, solutions to counter soil infertility.

Poor soils and deplorable living conditions for smallholders are a common story in Africa. Sadly
governments, and their research institutions that have been working to improve agricultural productivity and farmer livelihoods, have had little success.

Soil health improvements rely on the transfer of technical knowledge to achieve behaviour change. Unfortunately it often takes several seasons for a clear benefit to show. Farmers often give up before the results have fully materialized.

Successful adoption requires soil health technologies to be presented in a way that builds on existing practices with benefit to farmers within a season. Importantly, this does not have to be the primary ‘soil health’ benefit that the technology was originally designed for. Without links
between researchers, extensionists and farmers, it is impossible to design technologies and dissemination methods that achieve this.

I am part of Farm Input Promotions Africa (FIPS-Africa), a not-forprofit organization that works with
smallholder farmers offering tested innovative approaches and providing information and advice.

Advice from government extension officers often say the same thing; ‘buy hybrid seed, use DAP when planting and CAN for top dressing,’ regardless of the nuances of the research. This is not bad advice.

However, fertilizers will not achieve the desired results unless used properly. By working with farmers, we can understand that traditionally, they either broadcast their fertilizers and manure (if it is available) or place it on top of the seed in the planting hole –resulting in the seed being burnt and the phosphorus (which is immobile) being unavailable to the plant roots.

We therefore promote use of fertilizer alongside practical advice on placement of fertilizer in the planting hole, but separate from the seed. This results in increased yields immediately, even if only manure is applied. Our target small farmers are generally poor and not able to purchase 50kg of fertilizer or even 2kg of improved seed; in any case these pack sizes are too big for them.

We facilitate onfarm trials with tiny free packs of seed and several fertilizer companies now sell 1kg bags in Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria.

Farmers are often advised to improve their soil health by growing ‘fertilizer plants’ like soya, which improve the soil by fixing nitrogen. Together with partners such as Leldet and TSBF, we have made these recommendations more practical for farmers, who didn’t previously grow soya, by providing them with seed of improved varieties.

We promote these along with a rhizobium inoculant, called Biofix, to increase rate of nitrogen fixation by the plants. Importantly, farmers adopt the improved varieties of soya and Biofix for the quick return from higher yield. It is only later that farmers will observe the impact on soil health. We present farmers with sustainable options for improving their productivity and increasing their livelihoods and I wish more people could say the same.”

Agriculture could save Kenya’s hungry and poor

A Nation that cannot feed itself lives in perpetual shame of begging. It is clear that irrigation is the only guarantee of ensuring food sufficiency but has to couple with modern scientific methods in agriculture for guaranteed results.

Through good harvesting of rain water, a country such as ours has the vital resource to be able to feed itself and export.
Through value adding, the food produce is able to fetch good markets and guarantee good returns to the farmers and the industry which uses their products.

Our tea, coffee and horticulture are all in a class of their own in the world market and we should enhance the value adding and marketing to ripen best possible gains.

Jowili's Weblog

Obstacles to achieving household food security in Africa are multiple, ranging from population pressure, bad governance, environmental degradation, climate change and many more. But one of the key elements is the lack of recognition of the role that women have in producing food and generating the income with which they buy food.

Their labor load continues to increase by the day as interventions to alleviate their woes make them the targets of production- enhancing technologies. Technologies could be improved varieties of crops, fertilizers, soil & water management methods, agro-chemicals, animal breeds and vaccines.

This means they have little time to juggle between their productive and reproductive roles. They have the same problems that all smallholder farmers have in terms of access to markets, to inputs, to credit, but then on top of that they have their own specific constraints as women. But this is not the real problem; the real…

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VERY SIMPLE AND COST EFFECTIVE APPROACHES IN AGRICULTURE CAN EMPOWER WOMEN FARMERS

Obstacles to achieving household food security in Africa are multiple, ranging from population pressure, bad governance, environmental degradation, climate change and many more. But one of the key elements is the lack of recognition of the role that women have in producing food and generating the income with which they buy food.

Their labor load continues to increase by the day as interventions to alleviate their woes make them the targets of production- enhancing technologies. Technologies could be improved varieties of crops, fertilizers, soil & water management methods, agro-chemicals, animal breeds and vaccines.

This means they have little time to juggle between their productive and reproductive roles. They have the same problems that all smallholder farmers have in terms of access to markets, to inputs, to credit, but then on top of that they have their own specific constraints as women. But this is not the real problem; the real problem is empowering them, making them decision makers in the society.

Most organizations have been less successful in improving women’s decision making role at the community level because of a series of cultural restraints, which are stronger in some areas than others- Some communities are very conservative and they have not really recognized that women can have a public role. The public space is supposed to be a man’s space.

There are three possible steps that could improve a woman’s decision making role in the society. Involving them fully on every approach meant to better their lives, enabling women to earn more income and enabling them to produce more food. A combination of above can change the stature of a woman socially and economically.

Organizations have deployed approaches aimed at solving such challenges but most of them use exclusive methodologies that have not been so effective; large demonstration plots that are set up in elite farmers land for the village to emulate, technologies are demonstrated in farmers groups with the hope that the whole community will adopt and benefit.

Dorcas Nyangasi works with Farm Input promotions Africa (FIPS-Africa) – a not-for profit organization that aims to alleviate poverty and hunger in Africa by disseminating agricultural technologies to large numbers of small-holder farmers in a quick and cost-effective manner.

Nyangasi says a higher proportion of farmers (most of them women) will adopt improved agricultural technologies if an inclusive village approach is followed.

This is where all farmers are empowered to experiment with the new technology rather than limiting it to group members or lead farmers. If it is sweet potato or cassava then each and every household gets to try the new varieties outside their huts or on a portion of land to know that it can also work for them.

Households can then multiply the seeds and increase the space from where they grow the root tuber in three months in their own compounds. “The approach reduces the competitive mood that encourages farmer jealousy and boosts small holder farmers’ confidence since they see for themselves how the technology performs on their own land,” says Nyangasi.

In the village approach, the organization uses Village Based Advisors (VBA) who reaches at least 500 households in a village instead of 20 households in a group with new technology. As we all know women are more commonly found working in the fields and are therefore more likely to try the new technologies being promoted.

In Western Kenya, a majority of people who sell cassava, yams, arrowroots, sweet potato, cassava, legumes and vegetables are women farmers. If you visit Kibuye market in Kisumu, Mwanda market in Bungoma or Kiboswa market in Hamisi then being convinced that 90 percent of traders on such stuff are women will not be a problem.

This is not because they cannot sell maize, beans, rice or sugarcane in large scale but because it is the easiest and the fastest source of income. This should be the best entry point with any technology targeting women. So, while men (and less poor farmers) may have more interest in the maize and fertilizer activities, women (and poorer farmers) will disproportionately benefit from working with root and tuber crops and legumes.

A multifaceted approach is also required which not only catalyzes the development of markets by creating agricultural corridors along which women entrepreneurs flourish but also position a woman as a person in the society. Organizations should not only concentrate on promoting preferred crops but also work with crops that are predominantly considered to be womens’ crops.

FIPS-Africa takes a multi-technology approach with simple things like poultry vaccination, penning, and working with crops like sweet potato, cassava, beans and cowpeas. Women farmers can benefit from 30 vines of improved varieties sweet potato – and then multiply them on their own land to reach ¼ acre within 1 year.

At this point farmers are more food secure and are able sell some sweet potato tubers and buy the hybrid maize seed and other domestic consumables. The approach is a simple; giving the farmer a choice to excel where they are stronger as they slowly develops or engages in technologies that were once a challenge to them.

Such simple interventions insure greater food security by empowering women in particular, not only to contribute to, but to grow economically at the local and regional level. The approach recognizes that not all farmers can adopt all technologies.

Once a woman is empowered then there will be food security in every household-solving the problem of nutrition and hunger, the woman will have a different social status and since she will be empowered economically- she will be financially independent and then poverty and hunger will be kept at bay.

Why we should end the matatu menace

Two devils are pitted against each other. The bribe-taking devil is up in arms against the bribe-giving. It is difficult to love the police. It is difficult to love the Matatu crews. But if the two devils fight, I will support the devil in uniform.

Every Matatu strike is always an inconvenience to commuters in the city.

Many businesses are affected because most employees do not get to work on time or not at all. Goods delivered by matatu do not arrive either-it is a total mess.

Matatu people often exert their anger on innocent commuters because of their little problems with the police. Whatever they do, they always punish, harass and humiliate the commuter.

When it rains, matatus raise fares. They raise fares because they are swamped by demand since most people want to rush home at this time. When it is late in the evening Matatus raise fares again. They raise fares again because they say the vehicles on the road at that time are the very last transport you will come a cross. “Gari ya mwisho Kileleshwa sabini,” Ksh. 70 last vehicle to Kileleshwa they say.

When there is a traffic jam, matatus raise fares. They do not explain why they have done this. But the reasoning is that jams reduce that jams reduce the number of trips they need to make in order to realize their daily targets.

Harassment on a matatu by crews takes different humiliating forms. Overloading is back. The aisle, especially in Nissan minibuses, is narrow making navigation to the seats a struggle.

The seats are also too close to each other as to cause tall people in all forms of contortions in order to sit, never settle.The comfort of the passenger has never worried the matatu crews and owners. As if the discomfort is not enough, there is the discomfort that is forced on one as the ears are assailed by loud music.

Next will be the obscenities that greet the passenger who dares complain about this noise. The matatu tout is adept at humiliating one-line-put down. The complaining chap will be dismissed on account of his age; his physique, gender or assumed poverty.

Matatu crews not only harass and humiliate commuters, they also kill them! Most of the so called road accidents are mostly caused by drunk driving and the common matatu rush to nowhere. If you are a motorist using a road with matatus then you must have been overtaken at high-speed on a highway by the crew, only to halt a few meters ahead without warning. Reason, they have seen a passenger.

They not only harass those who get into their vehicles. They do it to other road users- motorists and pedestrians alike. When I was a new driver in Nairobi, my car stalled on Kenyatta avenue, a matatu tout triumphantly screamed at me to toa stovu yako njiani (remove my stove on the road!)

The other day I saw a lady motorist with an L plate on her car go through a similar, but more devastating experience. Stuck in a jam, her engine went off. She switched it on as the traffic began to move, as she struggled to get into the right gear, a matatu weaving its way through the slightest gap screeched to a stop besides her.

The tout banged the roof of her car and screamed KURUTUUU! Her car stuttered and the engine stopped. She was shaking now and went into panic. It was a police officer who come to her rescue. There are worse more, harrowing examples of this mayhem and madness caused by matatu crews on our roads.

You cannot allow matatu people to prevail over police. They will trample on any one, any thing and everything, anywhere and everywhere.

Kenya Not ready for discussions on Homosexuality and Lesbianism

Morality is the fabric that holds the society together. We must uphold such morals to make people comfortable or feel the same when interacting with each other. Homosexuality has been here with us and is here to stay it’s just that we choose not to talk about it.

The latest debates on gay and lesbianism has shown that Kenya is still not ready to accept the fact that such orientation is a reality and has been with us for long. The issue is generally considered as western indoctrination in the African setting.

It is so contentious that the media, civil society and the political class choose to push it under the carpet for fear of misconception or on moral grounds. It is like discussing sex at dinner in a traditional African setting.

However much we would want to say that the society is civilized, westernized, modernized or even globalized, such discussions still remain a ‘taboo’. Many are not still comfortable with such discussions.

I’m not against the gay and lesbian community but I think the fight to get in Kenya is still centuries away! I do not also think that there have been gains on the communities civil rights as the media reported. I’d love to relate such a belief to cognitive dissonance.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga is on the spot over the remarks he made over the weekend about such activities. Speaking Sunday at a rally in Kenya’s largest slum, Kibera, Mr. Odinga told supporters that none would be spared from laws in the new constitution that criminalize homosexual acts. The premier said that any Kenyan found engaging in homosexuality or “lesbianism” would be arrested and jailed.

The Premier made a reference to the constitution to the wrong audience on a pertinent but sensitive issue that is better left untouched. The current constitution criminalize homosexual acts. The ‘felony’, according to the constitution is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Counter statements by Nguru Karugu, a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, that the community “will now fear and go back in,” is not realistic because their activity have always been underground. It is better that way, at least in Kenya.

Yes homosexuals and lessbians are human beings, they lead normal lives like we do, they fall sick and go for health checks, they get services like we do, but must the society know that a person is gay or lesbian? There is no place on a human being identifying one as straight, lesbian or homosexual.

Kenya’s National AIDS Control Council has recently moved to include gay and lesbian and other high-risk groups outreach in its fight against AIDS. This shows the governments recognition of this community but it will take time for the public to fully accept the special group.

At least Kenya is not like Uganda that in 2009 sought to introduce a bill that would, in certain situations, impose the death penalty on people caught engaging homosexual acts!

Cultural Display @ 2010 SAMOSA Festival

SAMOSA Festival was a spectacular festival of cross cultural interaction in Kenya, showcasing the best in African, Asian and Western cultures in the region, and celebrating race, cultural and ethnic difference. With the intent of cultural fusion, the festival chose to use art, music, dance and poetry as some of the easiest and most expansive ways for humanity to embrace diversity.

The event mashed up the nyatiti with the sitar, putt together Rangoli (Asian reference to art with colours) with bottle tops and tile chips; it had Zulu and Indian dancers stamp their feet to the same rhythm; and poets sketch with words, as artists weave with pens.

According to Farah Nurrani, the festival director, the event was also meant to break the misconstrued perceptions that Kenyans from different races hence the 2010 theme  “Different is Exciting.”

“The cultural event also sought to know “What it means to be Kenyan in Kenya?” through panel discussions on cohesion and ethnicity,” says Nurrani

The event had drama and poetry, dance theatre, cocktails, concerts, children shows and panel discussions. The Samosa Festival was launched with a spectacular and dynamic dance show presented by South Africa’s celebrated Tribanghi Dance Theatre.

Directed by Jayesperi Moopen, Tribanghi is a pioneering and unique dance company coming all the way from Johannesburg. Moopen’s roots are in the classical Indian dance form known as Bharata Natyam.

Grappling with her own identity she has reinvented this dance form, and juxtaposed it with the complex dance forms of traditional Zulu dance. She explores her South African-ness through dance forms and experiments with identity through body movements.

According to the troupe director and choreographer, Tribanghi sought to represent the post-apartheid era of the rainbow nation – a coming together to celebrate, create, share and experience differences and similarities.

The production included three African men and three Indian women. Splendidly virile and athletic, in skirted Zulu-warrior mode, the men amaze with their muscular movements and traditional rhythms.

The women with their seductively flashing eyes and rhythmically stamping feet step out in congruence. The audience was lured to a visual feast of cross-cultural fusion animated by pulsating music and energized drumming. Mr.

Zahid Radjan was the deputy festival director, he says the event happens every two years and grows bigger by the day. “We have many organizations coming in to partner with us because this is a platform for the long overdue cultural appreciation and possible fusion,” says Radjan

The one week cultural event also drew a panel of experienced personality who sought to discuss who a Kenyan in Kenya was, with Perspectives from Culture and Arts , History, Identity, Politics and Economics , Values and Socialization at the Italian Institute for Culture in Nairobi.

The panellists included Alice Nderitu, Julie Gichuru, Keith Pearson, Ngunjiri Wambugu, Dr. Rafique Keshavjee and Tazim Elkington

 Alice is a commissioner with the National Cohesion and Integration Commission which was one of the commissions formed as part of Agenda 4 borne out of the negotiations after the 2007/8 post election violence. Alice Nderitu was previously the Director (ESJ) at Fahamu.

She has worked as a journalist, a teacher as well as programme head on education and media programmes at the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and the Prisons.

Julie is a renowned TV personality and a leading news anchor who is great with TV interviews. Julie is responsible for spearheading the move towards establishing a global presence through the internet and raising revenue through digital platforms.

Julie is the first African woman to receive the Martin Luther King Salute to Greatness Award for Advocacy of Active Non-Violence and Peace during the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008.

Dr. Rafique Keshavjee is the Head of Academic Planning for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in East Africa which has responsibility of developing the academic vision and framework for the Faculty. The Head leads a team of curriculum designers to develop a detailed curriculum plan and also inform key issues in the design and set-up of the FAS.

Dr Rafique holds a PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology.

Keith Pearson is The Managing Director of ‘The Theatre Company’. He is a man of many talents. Arriving in Nairobi in 1979 to teach English, Keith made Kenya his home almost at once. He has been at the forefront of some of the most pioneering theatrical productions Nairobi has ever seen. The Theatre Company performed at SAMOSA 2010.

 Ngunjiri is a businessman and a social justice activist. He has been in the forefront of advocating and agitating for national reconciliation and peace. Tazim Elkington is also a businesswoman who strongly believes that progressive change is an integral and essential path in life.

 Dr. Peter Mayaka attended four events of the festival he says the festival was one of a kind that he won’t ever miss. “I have never seen an event with a cultural blend like the SAMOSA festival. The browns, whites and blacks come together regardless of the colour of their skin. I wish Kenyans would emulate the same by assuming that we are not from different ethnic backgrounds” says Mayaka

SAMOSA means the South Asian Mosaic of Culture and arts. This is the third festival to be organised on Kenyan soil after 2006 and 2008. The event took place between 18th and 25th of September this year. The next festival is scheduled to take place in September 2012.

Blame game-Made in Kenya

Public officers have no otherwise but be answerable to the appointing authority, their bosses the electorate this has been a theory and the very leaders (Public Officers) get away with some atrocities.

The leaders endorsed the constitution as a document that could fast track reforms in various institutions in this country and majorly to tame corruption.

Casualties of the clauses of the new constitution on handling graft are citing bad blood, political witch hunt. The media has become a platform of accusation and counter accusation.

Former foreign affairs minister says the push to have him step aside was ill intentioned, a scheme to harm his political career. He says that  minister is not the accounting officer at the Ministry but an overseer of government operations. The Minister is right in his argument in fact I find it valid because the minister does not draft such contracts.

In many cases the minister only appends his signature to operationalize an undertaking by the institution. But the new constitution states very clearly that any person who holds a public office and has been charged with corruption should step aside to allow for investigations.

The complaints and the rallying of ones ethnic group on claims that it is being targeted should not be an issue here.  Former higher education minister the honourable William Ruto claims that the Kenya National commission on Human Rights (KNHCR) has hired and coached witness to testify against him in the Hague!

The commission is non-partisan and is under an obligation to fight  for the right of every Kenyan including the former minister. Before the post poll chaos the commission was keen on ensuring that those on the opposition were not ill-treated and in fact when the state denied the opposition the privilege to take to the streets against the election results, the human rights group condemned the action of the government in favor their favor. Ruto was in the opposition then.

The former minister and his cronies paid students, some gullible elders and a  few hand out friendly members of public Ksh 2,000 to parade themselves in the cold as their ‘heroe’ arrived from the Hague. Envelop hungry quarks hibernating in journalism profession were also picked from Hilton entrance to cover the ‘heroe’ return home. Who is paying for favours now.

Today its the Minister of Water and his former assistant in the accusation and counter accusation game. It is good that both of them are spilling the beans in public . Unfortunate but exact. Through their cold war we have learnt that there were contracts awarded without due protocol being followed. Thank you Kiunjuri. Ngilu has also revealed that she did not agree to be party to some millions meant to be looted!

Majiwa had a person to blame in the local government ministry. Many other public officers will look for who to blame in an attempt to hand wash to get public sympathy!

Our leaders are making it look Kenyan to blame a person when in problems. They should respect the rule of law in respect to the constitution that they swore allegiance to sometime this year. Stepping aside to allow for investigations does not mean guilt and our leaders know this.

Humanitarianism and the media in Kenya

We must underscore the fact that media will always focus on major political events, conflicts and disasters to sell and remain relevant. Humanitarian agencies are major sources of such stories, at times triggers to attention of the media.

In some occasions such stories create a distorted image of the developing world where famine and conflicts are thought to be rife, affecting a much higher proportion of the population of such countries than is actually the case but this triggers help.

Some crises and conflicts can run for a long time e.g. DRC crisis thus enabling the media to take various angles but still circumventing on the same issue whether a political, humanitarian or a natural calamity like the tsunami stories. As much as the media practitioners and various stakeholders would want a world of peace and a quick end to trouble, such stories will still sell.

According to Lenard Onyango, a senior news reporter at NTV, stories that have more airtime in the media cover tension, crisis and calamities. He says the stories constitute 70% of what the media covers today especially the mainstream media and the international press.

“Kenya experienced a political crisis at the height of the post election violence. This was the news then. Every house struggled to know ahead or keep pace. This also was the time when there was a demonstration of dependency between humanitarian agencies and the media they both needed each other,” says Onyango

The senior political reporter says the most credible and accurate source of information on the crisis at that time was the humanitarian agencies and not the police or the government agencies.

Onyango says that it reached a time that the government deliberately concealed information ‘in public interest’ claiming that it could further fan the chaos so the media had no where to turn to other than the relief agencies.

“The government then went ahead and banned live coverage on the same grounds. Humanitarian agencies, civil society and other pressure groups were among the first institutions to cry foul against the decision by the state,” he adds

The reporter says the relief agencies and the pressure groups were at the frontline in putting pressure to the government to lift the ban because it was harming democracy.

Onyango reveals that at times they had to accompany the agencies on their field days just to get in touch with the people because it come a time when even the media was under attack from the public but humanitarian agencies had a smooth way through.

In the same way the media was also important to such organizations. In the platform of information exchange, the relief agencies got to learn on areas that needed intervention through news flash or extensive coverage of an investigative issue of human interest.

The journalist singles out the Kiambaa church inferno that killed over 40 people as an example of events that the media helped raise attention to.

“Relief organizations responded after we flashed the story on our special programming schedule then,” says Onyango

During the 2008/2009 droughts in Kenya, the media worked closely with relief agencies to identify areas that were worst hit and to raise a red flag for impending hunger in an area. WFP and UNICEF and government agencies helped fund the school feeding programs in response to media highlights. At the same time the media got the actual numbers on reports done by these organizations on the same issue. (Daily Nation March 2009 pp 14)

This shows how the media and relief agencies do more or less the same thing in relation to crisis. Both the media and the agencies need each other. In fact the way the media reports an issue determines the amount of resources such organizations get from donor bodies and the international community. (Mutahi Too, 2003 International Aid policy pp 19 Thesis)

However there have been questions of ethics and credibility in the coverage of humanitarian issues. Accusations and counter accusations surround this issue in reference to the media and relief agencies on who might fan tension.

It is imperative that the media and humanitarian agencies coexist in service to the needy in the society. In real sense the media like the agencies rely on each other for information. The way a crisis is covered determines the nature of response by relief agencies. (Paul M, 1998 Humanity at Stake pp 32-33)

Most people pay attention to the extent to which TV News coverage of an emergency rather than the scale of humanitarian needs.
Media has a tendency of rushing rush in to cover issues on a humanitarian front or crises area but they take an angle of the nature of destruction and loss of lives and not on the humanitarian needs. The rushed stories are then presented to the world, objectivity and credibility aside. (Joanna Mathews Sept. 2009: Humanitarian Magazine)

They always want to be ahead of others and engage in competition related to having exclusives and breaking news.

“The manner in which such stories are prepared before being aired is wanting, they are done in a rush, in a competitive mood leading to inaccurate reports on a disclaimer of ‘according to unconfirmed reports!’” says Olweo  –Kenya Red Cross

He says humanitarian agencies time and again work to maintain their credibility by distancing themselves from the reports given by the media on grounds of no objectivity and humanitarian reporting ethics.

According to Olweo, when the public take both reports they end up more confused not knowing what information to take for truth.

“The public deserves to be told what is really going on; there is no justification for glossing over the complexity involved. The larger picture should be amply reported,” adds Olweo

He says even though agencies can positively subject such reports to verification and circumspection by making follow ups through whatever means, the viewers or listeners perceive the way it is. Such perceptions may lead to hostility and humanitarian agencies are one of the targets in hostile environments.

“In western Kenya, Budalangi, Busia County experiences floods every year. The media does not always point out on the efforts made by the humanitarian agencies in response to the perennial disaster. They may not even seek statistics from the humanitarian agencies on the ground but report on eye witness accounts and government agency attributions” adds

“At times the media does interviews with sources from humanitarian agencies but they filter out what they want the public to hear leaving a vacuum and many questions lingering in the international arena over the priorities taken by the organizations in response to the issue at hand,” says the aid worker

When the media carried the Narok county flash floods, it reported that humanitarian organizations had started distributing non food items, further giving a wrong response time by humanitarian agencies. In actual sense most organizations that intervened then had already distributed clean drinking water and some food items.

This puts the humanitarian agencies at jeopardy because the relevance of their existence and alertness to crisis situation interventions gets questionable. Such media reports influences the level of resources allocated to particular emergencies.

In some cases humanitarian agencies from other borders move in assuming that the existing agencies are overwhelmed or have no will to intervene to the humanitarian calls.

The media on the other hand have a foul cry against the humanitarian and relief agencies. The media claims that the organizations are at times entropic with certain information. Most of the organizations claim that policy issues bind them not to reveal information to the local media houses in their areas.

“When you go seeking for information on an area of interest of your story, they either refer you to their headquarters which might not be in the country or promise to call back in response to the issue” says Onyango

He says for this reason most reporters working with deadlines from editors and end up publishing stories less of details. Humanitarian and relief agencies then send memos and press releases against such reports.

“At times they want to appear as the hosts of the media in crisis situations and some organizations act as if they want the reporter to be answerable to them,” he says

According to Onyango the controversial Okoa Maisha operation in Mount Elgon in 2008 was a good platform where both the media and the humanitarian agencies noticed the importance of working together.

 In the initial stages of the operation no media house local or international was allowed to cover the ousting of Sabaut Land Defense Forces (SLDF) and so were the relief agencies.

When the state was declaring emergency in the area both the media and the organizations had made individual attempts to access the place. Neither of the two institutions succeeded.

“At times the media pushes so much and to make matters worse they push the wrong people to give them information with total disregard to bureaucracy. I believe every institution has a channel to be followed in relation to any issue,” says Agondoa

“Some people will have their jobs on the line if they speak and are not authorized to do so besides not every employee is a custodian of sensitive information,” adds

Conclusion
It must be said that relief agencies no longer have privileged knowledge of what is happening in the field. Some Journalists know more than relief workers, or at least as much. This reality should serve to foster dialogue. Media and humanitarian agencies must work together for the sake of the well being of the public close consultations in relation to such should be optimized.