This is a battle we can win without a doubt.
If only the pens of journalism could focus on water and sanitation as a basic and most fundamental human right – if journalism could anchor its cameras towards nothing but the priceless flow of clean drinking water then the battle will most definitely be won and by far.
Five years to hitting the targets of the MDGs and availability of clean, safe drinking water still remains a mirage to millions across the world. Only five years and communities are still choked by challenges of sanitation that threaten to reduce the planet we live in into a massive sea of sheer garbage.
Thus declares MDG 7: To halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. A very bold declaration indeed but sadly shy and notably lacking in sustainable gains compared to other MDGs.
Water and sanitation ought not to be “invisible” anymore; why should it when the Media across the globe can make the necessary noise to ensure that this basic human right is provided for and achieved?
Peace Pen Communications calls for the media across the region to rise up to the responsibility of making access to clean water and sanitation a priority to all nations and governments especially in sub-Saharan Africa where availability and accessibility to these basic rights are almost none-existent.
Statistics are glaring and disturbing. The urban poor settlements in major towns in the country agonize under severe shortages of water – in some places; access to clean drinking water is completely unheard of. It is in this area where sanitation issues are as remotely important as the need for an ostrich feather on a hat – nobody really gives a damn!
Flowing raw sewages, mountains of stinking garbage and the unavailability of toilets and waste-disposal systems have become synonymous with the wretched poor of urban towns.
But the urbanite is not the only victim to the intricacies of water and sanitation. Rural settlements have for eons decried the existence of dying water points made uninhabitable because of pollution. In other areas mainly inhabited by pastoralists and animal-headers perennial conflicts and raids have resulted to deaths and constant displacement of communities – all in the name of fighting for water points and water sources for animals.
The situation is much worse than illustrated. This is why the media like any other stakeholder in this issue must act and act fast.
Articulating water and sanitation needs amidst the realm of persistent poverty calls for a complete paradigm shift of how media recollects, digests and reports issues on water and sanitation. It calls for strategy and redefinition of what the role of the media is in advocating positive change especially in areas such as water and sanitation where critical masses are so in need.
True, water & sanitation may not be as “sexy” a subject as the vibrant politics of the day. The media docket in an ordinary newsroom may not even consider water as a lucrative enough subject to invest in so unless the story-angle is scandalous or controversial mere reportage may never see the light of day.
But media is wrong in this presumption. Just the mere fact that nations and governments fail to guarantee clean water and sanitation to its citizen as a basic human rights requirement as stipulated under the law is in itself a major anomaly. By denying citizens clean flowing water from the taps is by all means breaking the law! The new Constitution of Kenya for instance guarantees this right in no uncertain terms; Article 43 (1) b & d; - Every person has the right to clean and safe water in adequate quantities…and a right to reasonable standards of sanitation.
For a dedicated and critical media surely the glaring gaps in this regard should be fodder enough for ground-breaking meaningful stories on water and sanitation all year round! If media is keen to act as the agitators for rights of disgruntled citizenry then reportage of the flying toilets of Kibera and other slums would not cease until all slum areas are provided with decent toilet and waste management facilities regardless of the circumstances!
Fodder to keep the media interested in water & sanitation stories is in plenty.
Children walk for unbelievable kilometers every day in search of water on their way to school and back, women are attacked and raped at night when they venture out of their houses, especially in the slum areas to go to the only toilets available, communities kill each other in the name of water in cattle rustling battles that have mistakenly gained roots and become the norm, while contaminated water is sold to unsuspecting desperate consumers at exuberant rates as governments turn a blind eye. Such are stories that should and must keep the media busy enough to ensure governments are kept on toes to deliver vital services.
It takes the pooling together of all stakeholders in the water & sanitation field for this towering reality of MDG 7 to be realized especially in Africa. It means that policy makers, financial strategists, technical and resource services, governments, the donor community and the media should re-think and re-define the path towards achieving this goal.
It is only through a well-coordinated consistent and holistic approach to the water & sanitation crisis that tangible results can be achieved and celebrated. This will include a steady collaboration and partnership with the media to articulate and drive advocacy and implementation matters making them newsworthy enough to elicit reaction from responsible quarters charged with turning things around where gaps in terms of provision and services looms high.
It is the media that can put a face, a name, a voice and much credibility to the debate on access to clean drinking water and sanitation – it is the media that has the ability through proper packaging of issues on water & sanitation and articulating them to the various selected publics that the two issues can gain prominence and importance.
It is only when water persistently and continuously flows from the pen that the real impact of MDG 7 will be realized.
Add your comment; mngesa@peacepencommunications.org
The author tweets at; mildred.ngesa
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Sorry, this job is not only about the money!
You know it is not about the money when you do the story and walk away without bothering with the pay cheque. You know it ceased to be just a job when that one story bugged you so much you could hardly sleep at night. You realized your adrenaline was hooked to championing the voices of the voiceless when social injustice and police brutality made you so bl**dy mad you could have punched the legislature on the face!
It must have been that time when I was 17. Watching the news, chewing away a lazy afternoon I bolted on my sit at the headlines; Four Journalists killed in Somalia! I still remember what my mum said when I followed her to the kitchen and told her I know exactly what I want to do with myself after A-level; “Why do you want to go and get yourself killed in a battle-field instead of getting a nice quiet office Job and live your life in Peace? You can’t be the savior of the world you know!”
I repeated this lesson learnt over the years to a younger colleague this week – almost twenty years after those words were said to me; I said Edith? You may not change the whole world as a journalist but you can change the whole world for that one person whose story you fight for to the end.
I stand by my statement – I will continue standing by these lines for as long as the profession is alive – Journalism can change the world for one person at a time – one story at a time.
Many years have gone by and pulling out crumpled old newspaper- cuttings speak of the tears we shed through the lines we wrote on heart-breaking stories of the voiceless.
Time has passed but still once in a while, your name and face is familiar to someone whose story goes back in time – a story you brought to life – a story that changed their world! You pause in sheer amazement. You reflect. You marvel about this undeniable truth. It was never in vain.
It is the inspiration I wish I could instill in the freshly baked journalists who are dazzled by the life of the glittering celebrity-studded red-carpets and pencil thin glasses of champagne in stone-cold high-end hotels. I wish I could pull their heads away from the clouds of fantasizing on fame and fortune while riding on the back of a profession that really goes so much deeper than scratching the surfaces of mere make-believe It is a profession that needs one to be angry enough to want to do something about what is wrong in the society you live in.
Man, I miss those days of immense anger – days when journalists in news-rooms competed for credible bylines carved from their bleeding hearts triggered by the reality of life. Reality is harsh. Reality is tough. Reality is tougher in a story presented with hard facts, quotable quotes, painful truths and sometimes sad sad photos to attest. Reality is never pleasant, never nice to look at or read about but it is when we (journalists) turn our faces away from that reality and instead get lost in high-end cocktails that we stop to live in reality!
To those who call themselves journalists, my take is simple; quit the armchair corner of your comfort, roll up your sleeves, hit the road and speak to real people and get real stories. Sitting back on your lap-top and hitting the “search” button for a “how-to-do” kind of story then you copy & paste and append your byline for publication is the highest ridicule to a noble profession, paahleez get-off it!!
These days, critics say we are lazy. They say internet has rendered the profession obsolete, I say gobbledygook!! The profession can never die – it should never die because stories and experiences live on from the lines we weave together and the clicks we make to record history and events.
That is why I urge rookies in the newsrooms to get their finger on the pulse of the essence of this job. With my two-cents-worth of experience and knowledge, I need them to know that there is much better accolades in the job than the extra zeroes on the pays-lip. Infarct, the job may not even be paying so well but how about going to bed knowing you changed the world for one person and turned them into believers of the beauty of journalism? Think about it.
It must have been that time when I was 17. Watching the news, chewing away a lazy afternoon I bolted on my sit at the headlines; Four Journalists killed in Somalia! I still remember what my mum said when I followed her to the kitchen and told her I know exactly what I want to do with myself after A-level; “Why do you want to go and get yourself killed in a battle-field instead of getting a nice quiet office Job and live your life in Peace? You can’t be the savior of the world you know!”
I repeated this lesson learnt over the years to a younger colleague this week – almost twenty years after those words were said to me; I said Edith? You may not change the whole world as a journalist but you can change the whole world for that one person whose story you fight for to the end.
I stand by my statement – I will continue standing by these lines for as long as the profession is alive – Journalism can change the world for one person at a time – one story at a time.
Many years have gone by and pulling out crumpled old newspaper- cuttings speak of the tears we shed through the lines we wrote on heart-breaking stories of the voiceless.
Time has passed but still once in a while, your name and face is familiar to someone whose story goes back in time – a story you brought to life – a story that changed their world! You pause in sheer amazement. You reflect. You marvel about this undeniable truth. It was never in vain.
It is the inspiration I wish I could instill in the freshly baked journalists who are dazzled by the life of the glittering celebrity-studded red-carpets and pencil thin glasses of champagne in stone-cold high-end hotels. I wish I could pull their heads away from the clouds of fantasizing on fame and fortune while riding on the back of a profession that really goes so much deeper than scratching the surfaces of mere make-believe It is a profession that needs one to be angry enough to want to do something about what is wrong in the society you live in.
Man, I miss those days of immense anger – days when journalists in news-rooms competed for credible bylines carved from their bleeding hearts triggered by the reality of life. Reality is harsh. Reality is tough. Reality is tougher in a story presented with hard facts, quotable quotes, painful truths and sometimes sad sad photos to attest. Reality is never pleasant, never nice to look at or read about but it is when we (journalists) turn our faces away from that reality and instead get lost in high-end cocktails that we stop to live in reality!
To those who call themselves journalists, my take is simple; quit the armchair corner of your comfort, roll up your sleeves, hit the road and speak to real people and get real stories. Sitting back on your lap-top and hitting the “search” button for a “how-to-do” kind of story then you copy & paste and append your byline for publication is the highest ridicule to a noble profession, paahleez get-off it!!
These days, critics say we are lazy. They say internet has rendered the profession obsolete, I say gobbledygook!! The profession can never die – it should never die because stories and experiences live on from the lines we weave together and the clicks we make to record history and events.
That is why I urge rookies in the newsrooms to get their finger on the pulse of the essence of this job. With my two-cents-worth of experience and knowledge, I need them to know that there is much better accolades in the job than the extra zeroes on the pays-lip. Infarct, the job may not even be paying so well but how about going to bed knowing you changed the world for one person and turned them into believers of the beauty of journalism? Think about it.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Searching for Thomas Sankara’s corruption-free t-shirt
I am searching for a very important memento - a t-shirt of the felled renowned Burkina Faso revolutionary leader Captain Thomas Sankara.
He is claimed as Africa’s own Che Guevara. I eulogize Che many times with precious jungle green t-shirt embodied with his piercing eyes on a feted photo of his youth. When I wear it I feel vindicated - my soul is re-born in the hope that upright ideals never really wither with time.
But it is Sankara’s T-shirt that I crave the most - especially now.
Today, the continent is blotted with corruption; plunder of natural resources, nauseating Kleptocracy and pillage of public funds and utilities. It is a sad tale of a destitute continent impoverished further by stark-rotten governance, mismanagement and the audacious deceit by western implored Breton-woods institutions on a continent in disarray.
Sankara should have lived longer. Maybe then, his ideals would have been too glaring to ignore. Maybe Africa’s leadership would have assumed a different tone.
His ghost nudges my conscience especially now when the list of Who Own Kenya, as exemplified weekly in a local TV station grows unbelievably ridiculous with a minority segment’s impudence to amass obscene yards of wealth in the face of retching poverty of the masses.
The gluttonous bourgeoisie’s latest squander has touched on the core vulnerability of the poor in Kenya; Education and food. Where free primary education would have liberated masses from the bondage of poverty to empowerment and economic freedom, the wealthy leading class have sunk their grip and yanked out billions! Where maize for the poor would have bridged a great starvation gap and restored some sense of sustainable hope, the sticky fingers of politicians entrusted with a country’s well being have gained root.
Were Thomas Sankara the president of Kenya today, his options would have been simple; fire all the ministers involved and their subordinates on the spot, re-direct the management of food provision and management directly to the people and reigned in on the free primary education to actually ensure that it works.
No, he would not have been implicated in any of the scams either. That, I am absolutely sure! For a president who died with four bicycles, an old Mazda salon, a broken down fridge and a freezer to his name, such acts of political irresponsibility would have been sacrilegious!
This is why my mind has been dancing with Sankara’s ghost in these recent days.
I must have been a restless nonchalant teenager when he was assassinated for his ideals 22 years ago. Today, he fills my imaginations with nostalgic fantasies of what political accountability ought to be; what true Africa leadership should have been long before the big fat cats strode into town.
Well, I have a simple question to the same big cats (read, the president, prime minister, ministers, permanent secretaries and members of parliament) who seem to have conveniently forgotten to whom they ought to be accountable; how many of you ride bicycles to the office every ? How many of you drive an old Renault?
The minister of finance Uhuru Kenyatta must have thought he was making history when his ministry ordered the sale of all fuel guzzlers used by public servants and replace them with supposedly low-maintenance VW Passatts in the name of cost-cutting on government expenditure
Thomas Sankara had beaten him to it in 1983 when he came into power in Burkina Faso. He sold most of the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5, the cheapest car sold at Burkina Faso at the time the official service car of the ministers.
Sankara himself used his four bicycles to ride to most of his official functions, his most echoed sentiments then being, “we cannot be the rich ruling class of a poor country!” He led by meticulous example. Now on a good day with a sunlit streak, I would wish to see, say the minister for Tourism Hon. Najib Balala ride to his Utalii House office on a black mamba bicycle or the honourable President arrive at a state function in a Renault 5 or a broken down Mazda!
Sankara’s legacy today looms larger and even more alive than his brief 37 years on earth. Scholars, critics and admirer’s alike continue to eulogize him in awe paying tribute to a simple man from whom Burkinabe’s owe their identity for it is when he assumed power that he changed the country’s name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, “land of the upright people”. His visionary calling for transparency and accountability, justice and equality of all Burkinabes must have guided his instincts even for a choice of name! The guy’s humility to serve his people was so deep that he even refused to have his portrait embedded across his country’s official sites or any other shelves by simply responding; “They are seven million Burkinabes!”, why focus on him alone!
It is not humanly possible to bring back the Sankara years and replicate them in our corridors of maize mugging, education-plundering corridors of Kenya’s fat-cats or other communities of fat-cats spread across Africa’s capitals.
Sankara remains a nostalgic memory of Africa’s history whose selfless contribution to his people is insulted with every measure of corruption that purports to put individual profits before the people’s well-being. His was not merely a political gimmick meant to upsurge public support and present himself as a flawless leader of the Burkinabes. His was a true lifestyle because Sankara lived the way he died – a poor servant of the Burkinabe people.
And that is why I am dying for his t-shirt. None of Kenya’s political leadership so far has inspired me enough to want to have their faces embodied across my bosom..none but Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso!
Mildred Ngesa is the founder and director of Peace pen Communications
Contact the writer; mngesa@peacepencommunications.org
Mildred Ngesa twits on; @mildredngesa
He is claimed as Africa’s own Che Guevara. I eulogize Che many times with precious jungle green t-shirt embodied with his piercing eyes on a feted photo of his youth. When I wear it I feel vindicated - my soul is re-born in the hope that upright ideals never really wither with time.
But it is Sankara’s T-shirt that I crave the most - especially now.
Today, the continent is blotted with corruption; plunder of natural resources, nauseating Kleptocracy and pillage of public funds and utilities. It is a sad tale of a destitute continent impoverished further by stark-rotten governance, mismanagement and the audacious deceit by western implored Breton-woods institutions on a continent in disarray.
Sankara should have lived longer. Maybe then, his ideals would have been too glaring to ignore. Maybe Africa’s leadership would have assumed a different tone.
His ghost nudges my conscience especially now when the list of Who Own Kenya, as exemplified weekly in a local TV station grows unbelievably ridiculous with a minority segment’s impudence to amass obscene yards of wealth in the face of retching poverty of the masses.
The gluttonous bourgeoisie’s latest squander has touched on the core vulnerability of the poor in Kenya; Education and food. Where free primary education would have liberated masses from the bondage of poverty to empowerment and economic freedom, the wealthy leading class have sunk their grip and yanked out billions! Where maize for the poor would have bridged a great starvation gap and restored some sense of sustainable hope, the sticky fingers of politicians entrusted with a country’s well being have gained root.
Were Thomas Sankara the president of Kenya today, his options would have been simple; fire all the ministers involved and their subordinates on the spot, re-direct the management of food provision and management directly to the people and reigned in on the free primary education to actually ensure that it works.
No, he would not have been implicated in any of the scams either. That, I am absolutely sure! For a president who died with four bicycles, an old Mazda salon, a broken down fridge and a freezer to his name, such acts of political irresponsibility would have been sacrilegious!
This is why my mind has been dancing with Sankara’s ghost in these recent days.
I must have been a restless nonchalant teenager when he was assassinated for his ideals 22 years ago. Today, he fills my imaginations with nostalgic fantasies of what political accountability ought to be; what true Africa leadership should have been long before the big fat cats strode into town.
Well, I have a simple question to the same big cats (read, the president, prime minister, ministers, permanent secretaries and members of parliament) who seem to have conveniently forgotten to whom they ought to be accountable; how many of you ride bicycles to the office every ? How many of you drive an old Renault?
The minister of finance Uhuru Kenyatta must have thought he was making history when his ministry ordered the sale of all fuel guzzlers used by public servants and replace them with supposedly low-maintenance VW Passatts in the name of cost-cutting on government expenditure
Thomas Sankara had beaten him to it in 1983 when he came into power in Burkina Faso. He sold most of the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5, the cheapest car sold at Burkina Faso at the time the official service car of the ministers.
Sankara himself used his four bicycles to ride to most of his official functions, his most echoed sentiments then being, “we cannot be the rich ruling class of a poor country!” He led by meticulous example. Now on a good day with a sunlit streak, I would wish to see, say the minister for Tourism Hon. Najib Balala ride to his Utalii House office on a black mamba bicycle or the honourable President arrive at a state function in a Renault 5 or a broken down Mazda!
Sankara’s legacy today looms larger and even more alive than his brief 37 years on earth. Scholars, critics and admirer’s alike continue to eulogize him in awe paying tribute to a simple man from whom Burkinabe’s owe their identity for it is when he assumed power that he changed the country’s name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, “land of the upright people”. His visionary calling for transparency and accountability, justice and equality of all Burkinabes must have guided his instincts even for a choice of name! The guy’s humility to serve his people was so deep that he even refused to have his portrait embedded across his country’s official sites or any other shelves by simply responding; “They are seven million Burkinabes!”, why focus on him alone!
It is not humanly possible to bring back the Sankara years and replicate them in our corridors of maize mugging, education-plundering corridors of Kenya’s fat-cats or other communities of fat-cats spread across Africa’s capitals.
Sankara remains a nostalgic memory of Africa’s history whose selfless contribution to his people is insulted with every measure of corruption that purports to put individual profits before the people’s well-being. His was not merely a political gimmick meant to upsurge public support and present himself as a flawless leader of the Burkinabes. His was a true lifestyle because Sankara lived the way he died – a poor servant of the Burkinabe people.
And that is why I am dying for his t-shirt. None of Kenya’s political leadership so far has inspired me enough to want to have their faces embodied across my bosom..none but Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso!
Mildred Ngesa is the founder and director of Peace pen Communications
Contact the writer; mngesa@peacepencommunications.org
Mildred Ngesa twits on; @mildredngesa
Will the sun continue to shine for the Media after polls?
I do not want to feel cold after August 4th 2010.
Infact, I am hoping that Kenya’s winter will be over with the last vote that is cast in the referendum polls, who knows? Maybe on August 5th, the sun will shine so bright in the hearts of Kenyans to remind them that not an ounce of loyalty to the “reds” or “greens” is worth any spill of blood. How I wish my colleagues in the media would prioritize coverage of Kenya’s referendum campaigns 2010 as if the entire sunshine of the nation depends on it!
It is hard to speak of sunshine when the referendum campaigns are doing a perfect job of chilling scenarios across the country.
These days, before you step out of the house, you think twice about donning that red or green blouse….in case your wardrobe choice is misinterpreted to reflect your bias in the referendum vote.
This by the way, is the kind of contemplation I wish our media houses would reflect on before choosing to go to town with the splash of the day.
This debate is engaging; “Should Media houses be allowed to take sided in the referendum debate? Should they be allowed to take sides in any coverage at all?”.
Many years ago, while still in Journalism school, this question would have elicited defiance from many a journalist wannabes because it is a question that almost boarders on the absurd - one that makes a mockery of objectivity. Objectivity we were taught is the backbone of good journalism practice or is it not?
Long since earning my right as a qualified journalist (tried and tested in several newsrooms) I now appreciate the fact that lessons learnt in a classroom and realities in a newsroom are as different as night is from day. When the good don drums it in your head that balance is the guiding stick for every credible media house worth the name, he conveniently forgets to feed you the bitter pill that is the reality of media practice. This stinking reality is the very bane to professional ethics as exemplified in coverage of the referendum campaigns.
With pursuit for professional excellence comes the pressure for commercial superiority, an aspect that throttles professionalism holding it hostage to the pens that sign big cheques. Any successful media house will tell you that messing-up with giant advertisers amounts to strangling the whole enterprise, so if advertisers cough in red or green buckets then that is exactly the colour of the day the media house will slant towards. The same goes for control and ownership of media houses where the money-bags rape editorial policies and craftily invade editorial content. Of course there is the other thorn,that of allegiance to tribal chieftains and loyalties to political party affiliations by media managers, but then, this is generally a Kenyan weakness or is it not?
Today as I flip through Newspaper pages and hop across various news channels in the country, I get this nagging realization that something is ailing our media.
Behind the desks of Peace Pen Communications where I am filling copy, I can hear the hum and buzz of colleagues on the other side of the room debating this very same question as they go about monitoring coverage of the day. It is a routine we have mastered over the last couple of weeks – a routine that is bringing daily disheartening verdicts of why and how media ethics in Kenya is taking a nose-dive in the face of external interference in the campaigns. Will the media survive this freezing onslaught on the profession in this referendum period? Will the sun ever shine in media houses after the last referendum vote is cast? Stay with me and get answers.
Mildred Ngesa is the founder and director of Peace pen Communications
Add your comment to this article (click)
Contact the writer; mngesa@peacepencommunications.org
Mildred Ngesa twits on;https://twitter.com/mildredngesa
Infact, I am hoping that Kenya’s winter will be over with the last vote that is cast in the referendum polls, who knows? Maybe on August 5th, the sun will shine so bright in the hearts of Kenyans to remind them that not an ounce of loyalty to the “reds” or “greens” is worth any spill of blood. How I wish my colleagues in the media would prioritize coverage of Kenya’s referendum campaigns 2010 as if the entire sunshine of the nation depends on it!
It is hard to speak of sunshine when the referendum campaigns are doing a perfect job of chilling scenarios across the country.
These days, before you step out of the house, you think twice about donning that red or green blouse….in case your wardrobe choice is misinterpreted to reflect your bias in the referendum vote.
This by the way, is the kind of contemplation I wish our media houses would reflect on before choosing to go to town with the splash of the day.
This debate is engaging; “Should Media houses be allowed to take sided in the referendum debate? Should they be allowed to take sides in any coverage at all?”.
Many years ago, while still in Journalism school, this question would have elicited defiance from many a journalist wannabes because it is a question that almost boarders on the absurd - one that makes a mockery of objectivity. Objectivity we were taught is the backbone of good journalism practice or is it not?
Long since earning my right as a qualified journalist (tried and tested in several newsrooms) I now appreciate the fact that lessons learnt in a classroom and realities in a newsroom are as different as night is from day. When the good don drums it in your head that balance is the guiding stick for every credible media house worth the name, he conveniently forgets to feed you the bitter pill that is the reality of media practice. This stinking reality is the very bane to professional ethics as exemplified in coverage of the referendum campaigns.
With pursuit for professional excellence comes the pressure for commercial superiority, an aspect that throttles professionalism holding it hostage to the pens that sign big cheques. Any successful media house will tell you that messing-up with giant advertisers amounts to strangling the whole enterprise, so if advertisers cough in red or green buckets then that is exactly the colour of the day the media house will slant towards. The same goes for control and ownership of media houses where the money-bags rape editorial policies and craftily invade editorial content. Of course there is the other thorn,that of allegiance to tribal chieftains and loyalties to political party affiliations by media managers, but then, this is generally a Kenyan weakness or is it not?
Today as I flip through Newspaper pages and hop across various news channels in the country, I get this nagging realization that something is ailing our media.
Behind the desks of Peace Pen Communications where I am filling copy, I can hear the hum and buzz of colleagues on the other side of the room debating this very same question as they go about monitoring coverage of the day. It is a routine we have mastered over the last couple of weeks – a routine that is bringing daily disheartening verdicts of why and how media ethics in Kenya is taking a nose-dive in the face of external interference in the campaigns. Will the media survive this freezing onslaught on the profession in this referendum period? Will the sun ever shine in media houses after the last referendum vote is cast? Stay with me and get answers.
Mildred Ngesa is the founder and director of Peace pen Communications
Add your comment to this article (click)
Contact the writer; mngesa@peacepencommunications.org
Mildred Ngesa twits on;https://twitter.com/mildredngesa
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