Jerry Okungu
8 January 2009
opinion
Kampala — A week before Christmas was again the season for the Kenya government to have another street fight with its perennial lover; the media fraternity.
It may even be safe to say that this bout of violent attack on the media from time to time is what sustains this marriage.
The two partners seem to cherish a dose of violent confrontation from time to time to add spice to their troubled relationship! If you look at the behavior of the media industry in Kenya, especially the management of big media in relation to political leaders, it will be difficult to see the difference.
In fact they have more in common than what sets them apart. That is why it is hypocritical for the media in Kenya to accuse the government of enacting a law that intends to gag the media.
To tell you the truth, the media in Kenya has a more suppressive internal self-censorship than what the government is planning. In many media houses, it is difficult to be published if your story is out of step with the company's official thinking no matter how weird that thinking is.
Coming back to our violent story of the week that started with the passing of the Media Bill considered hostile to Kenya's press freedom; we were treated to a rare spectacle where for the first time a female station broadcaster was on the frontline agitating for press freedom.
Caroline Mutoko together with her colleagues were arrested for standing up to the regime on a range of issues that included runway poverty, MPs' refusal to pay taxes and most painfully the obnoxious Media Bill that intended to authorise the internal security minister to invade media houses and destroy broadcast equipment at will, should he deem the action to be in the interest of national security!
The relationship between the media and all regimes in Kenya can sometimes be compared to that between a hen and a fox.
My parents used to tell me that whenever I got into trouble; part of it was because I went looking for it. And the story of the hen and the fox came in handy to drive the point home.
They would remind me that should the hen come running home with the fox in hot pursuit; first chase the fox away but afterwards, admonish the hen for straying into the jungle in the first place!
Remind the hen that any time it ventures from the confines of the compound, it is looking for trouble and one day it would find itself on the fox's dinner table!
Last year, when Kenya journalists demonstrated on Nairobi streets with lips sealed in protest against the same Media Bill, we praised them for finally standing up for their rights.
But one thing I warned them against in this column was to be complacent. I told them that if they went to sleep, that bill would come up again; not in the next month or year.
It would probably be brought back by the very politicians that were pretending to love press freedom more than their spouses.
Wasn't it ironical and even shameful that soon after leading media houses were raided on orders by top politicians in the early days of the Kibaki regime; when elections came, the same media houses were at the frontline championing the reelection of some of the very politicians?
Wasn't it strange that this time round as Nyambane of Nation Media Group , Caroline Mutoko of Kiss FM and other journalists were being rounded up for protesting against the Media Bill, editors were being awarded medals of distinguished service by the State?
I may be wrong, but in more civilised societies, these medals would have been rejected by the recipients in protest against government brutality. Our honoured gentlemen did not see the need to do so!
The history of government brutality is long and agonising. Since independence, regime brutality against journalists in Kenya has been consistent to a fault.
If anything, the reason some obnoxious clauses have been included in the Bill this time round was simply to legalise the violence that has always been there.
President Kibaki is not the first to give medals to journalists. Daniel arap Moi honoured journalists that had served him well.
And yes, no regime on earth honours anybody on the basis of professionalism and excellence alone. The individual must have offered exemplary service in furthering its cause.
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I sympathize with Kenyan media on their concern on the Media Bill and agree with those calling for a rethink on the offending clauses. However, is the media not being outright hypocritical? The media themselves have very short memory! Some media houses are mentioned in the Waki, Krligler and in KNCHR reports as having been active and party to inciting post election violence.
The media solicited, and happily accepted, thirty pieces of silver- to betray their country and send it up in frames. These thirty pieces of silver came from the very politicians they are now crucifying.No wonder the MPS feel betrayed.They paid the media to sing praise songs for them and to incite communities against each other in the name of democracy.The media went to bed with murderous! Then the media turned around to shed crocodile tears when people were burnt in churches! How many of these so called wananchi saviors have been seen on the streets agitating for the resettlement of IDPS and for the post election murdrerous to be prosecuted?Kenyans, don't be fooled! These so called activists were on the streets not to protect Kenyans against a bad Media Bill but to protect their jobs. They are no different from the ECK employees who were on hunger strike to protect their jobs despite their role in messing up 2007 Elections, whether they were small clerks or big clerks.(Incidentally, the people who actually messed up 2007 Elections were the RETURNING officers, some of them had no integrity). Where on earth, say, do you have absolute freedom?Freedom comes with responsibility which is lacking in the Kenyan media. A country must have values with which to guide its youth otherwise we will soon be a lost society if we let 'anything go' as being advocated by the media and other activists -most of them have own different agendas. Learn from American voters--they look for family values in their candidates.Why is our media bent on destroying family values?