No. 13, February 1, 2010

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Kabira’s straw man PR

Presidential Press Service director Isaiah Kabira has prompted The Bulletin to repeat a question we asked mid-December: What is it that happens to perfectly competent and conscientious Kenyans when they join government service? Earlier this month, we called for an end to the cruel behaviour of President Kibaki’s bodyguards towards journalists covering him. We wondered why the President’s press secretary had not advised his boss’s handlers to treat news reporters and photographers with the respect they deserve.

But Mr. Kabira simply did nothing. The President’s men went on to rough up journalists again at a funeral attended by Kibaki in Nanyuki. On Monday, David Makali, the Director of the Media Institute, condemned the behaviour of the President’s overzealous security aides in his column in The Star. The same day The Standard ran an editorial calling on the presidential guard to be civil, not roguish.

That was when Mr. Kabira suddenly kicked away his blankets and sat up. We imagine he rubbed his eyes with his fists and then blinked several times. The PPS boss then walked straight to his desk and began typing. “Concern has been raised over claims that Presidential security guards have harassed and thrown out journalists from covering some engagements by the Head of State […] While such incidents are regrettable, and while we recognize that the public has a right to know what the country’s chief executive is doing, this does not entail the total abnegation of the privacy of the Head of State.”

Mr. Kabira’s argument is exactly what experts in logic call the straw man fallacy. It goes like this: Person A takes Position X. Person B concocts a misrepresentation of Position X, creating a weaker but superficially-similar Position Y (the straw man), which he then proceeds to refute. Person B pretends he has sufficiently answered Person A. But he only strangled the straw man he conveniently created, without touching the key argument in Position X.

No one - The Bulletin, Makali, The Standard or any other sane person – would ever demand “total abnegation of the privacy of the Head of State” (Kabira’s straw man) for the sake of media coverage or for whatever reason. It is unthinkable. As The Standard said, and all media people would readily agree, the President is entitled to tight security round the clock in and outside State House. “But it is one thing to guard the President, and another to commit crimes in his name. It is indefensible that his guards would, without flinching, attack journalists and lug them along by the waistbands of their trousers and skirts.”

Now that you seem to be fully awake, Mr. Isaiah Kabira, are you able to see the difference?

And, Sir, you say that media alerts are issued ahead of presidential functions inviting media and detailing the event, time and venue; that no such notification and invitation had been made for the two funerals attended by Kibaki; and that media houses should respect this standard practice in order to avoid misunderstanding and unedifying incidences in future. Are you justifying violence on journalists on the grounds that they were not invited? Are you saying that journalists can only cover the President on invitation? Is that what you did when you were the editorial head of KTN?

Is that what you mean when you say, “Since President Kibaki took over leadership, a deliberate commitment has been made to widen the democratic space and ensure total freedom of expression and freedom of media”?

Want coverage? Get a politician

Thousands of Christians gathered at Dedan Kimathi Kamkunji Stadium in Nyeri for two days of prayer for Central Kenya. But the organizers were taken aback. None of the Members of Parliament from the province was in sight despite being invited well ahead of time. The churchmen were disappointed and angry. Why did the MPs ignore the function? “Next time we should elect MPs who fear God,” a bishop reportedly threatened.

Why were the churchmen so pissed off by the MPs’ absence? Is it like God would not accept a province’s prayers if MPs from the area were not in attendance? No. Besides the fact that nearly every Kenyan cleric relishes being seen standing next to a politician, deep down their hearts the Central Kenya churchmen knew pretty well that the absence of their MPs meant the event would get scant media attention.

Ask Synovate’s Media Monitoring Division. In the last quarter of 2009 (October-December), politicians hogged a staggering 42 percent of TV and print news coverage. Social issues (like religious services where politicians are absent) came a distant second with 20 percent. Business took 16 percent, governance 10, sports eight, the environment three and international affairs one.

So in Kenya if you want an event properly publicized, invite a big politician or several. He will surely turn up at the venue with news reporters clinging to the belt below his bursting midriff. As a media owner or manager, will you hold your head high that this is the kind of journalism you want for Kenya?

Muthuto’s woes as news

Still on politicians and the media. On Monday, a Nairobi court issued a warrant of arrest for Naivasha Member of Parliament John Mututho after he failed to appear for a criminal case. He is accused of defrauding Kenyatta National Hospital of some Sh41 million. On Tuesday and Wednesday some media houses carried reports of Mututho challenging the warrant. He said he wasn’t required in court on Monday.

Hands up the great editors who sent out reporters to cover the “event”, or who allowed the “story” space or airtime. Thank you very much. One question: when did the media become the correct platform to challenge court orders? The Bulletin struggles to say this politely. You let a politician misuse the media. Mututho got free publicity from media that is annoyingly obsessed with politicians. What value did the “story” add to the lives of Kenyan viewers, readers and listeners? How far down the pit do we want to drag this profession?

Columnist Sunny Bindra wrote an article in the Sunday Nation of January 24 titled, ‘We are focusing on trivia instead of real news’. An extract:

“I am spending less and less time consuming Kenyan news, and it is months since I watched a full television newscast. That may seem a damning confession from someone purporting to be a columnist, but there you are. In fact, more and more thinking Kenyans are telling me they are doing the same thing. They cannot stand the intensely absurd focus on the antics of politicians that we have in this country.”

Could this be because some journalists and media top dogs are said to be on the payroll of politicians to always keep them in the limelight?

What’s the population of Mungiki?

Nobody ever conducted a census of Mungiki, so the membership of this scary quasi-religious group remains unknown. The Mungiki think of themselves as a multitude, which is what the word means in Gikuyu language. So it is unlikely they would welcome a headcount. What’s more, no one goes around bus stops waving a machete and telling people, ‘My name is Kipng’eno arap Kariuki and I’m a member’ (of the Mungiki). It is therefore virtually impossible to say with full certainty who belongs to the sect and who doesn’t.

How then should news reporters handle the question of Mungiki numbers? Unless we are talking about a certain number of Mungiki suspects held by Police in a particular instance or who appeared in court, etc, it is best to leave out speculation about the numbers of an underground criminal network.

This advice goes to The Star newspaper, which had two stories on Monday on Page 3 touching on Mungiki numbers. In the main story on that page, The Star reported that “about 25,000 young men”, supposedly members of the sect, attended the funeral of Mungiki founder Maina Njenga’s wife in Kitengela. How did the Star determine the size of the crowd?

The second story was about an interdenominational prayer service in Nyeri where Christians sought divine intervention for the province’s youth who have joined Mungiki. “It is estimated that 500,000 youth in Central have joined Mungiki,” The Star reported. Estimated by whom? Is that figure accurate? Who did the headcount? The newspaper did not say. Guesswork is fantastic journalism.

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