Of sensational headlines by press and blueticking
wananchi as State officers loot public coffers
By MUSYOKA NGUI
People, especially, the
Opposition have accused Jubilee administration of being obsessed with Public Relations
(PR).
Doing it for the cameras,
helping civilians who have employed you to help anyway, and uploading the
evidence online. Being the proverbial/or is it the Pharisee? That practices Christianity
on street corners?
If there’s a good dose to
give a political opponent is ignoring them completely. When you respond to
their attacks, you give them fodder for more attacks in future.
The mainstream press have
not helped matters either. They do casual investigations and sensationalize
serious issues affecting the ordinary Kenyans. No wonder they were called
githeri media. A cursory glance at newspaper headlines give a clear picture of
who is behind the story in terms of funding, brown envelope and logistical
support for the highly underpaid press yet given a lot of daily delivery deadlines.
The fourth estate has let
down Kenyans in a big way. Instead of focusing on issues that affect the
wananchi directly they run stories with most hits even if they have no
newsworthy content. For instance, take the massive corruption scandals in the government.
Why haven’t the media investigated the persons mentioned in the leakages? There
are constitutional commissions and judiciary tasked with corruption
investigations but the fourth estate handles corruption matters with kid gloves.
The Church hasn’t helped
matters either. They don’t condemn public officers mentioned in graft cases. Instead,
they receive the offerings and tithes from the so called saved Christians. Expecting
a beneficiary of graft to condemn the vice is a tall order to ask for. Have you
asked yourself why corruption is rampant in Kenya despite 80% of the 48 million
population being Christians?
It takes two to tango. The
giver and receiver loot State coffers as the people tasked with checking the
graft standby. In other cases, some are caught with hands in the till. As president
Kenyatta does his second and final term, he should consider his legacy. So far
he has given the much needed political goodwill to State prosecutors to tackle corruption
head on.
As for the recent Ipsos
Synovate survey that ranked top politicians and political families high on perception
indices, there’s little that has been done to name So what? There’s a growing dissatisfaction
with character assassination of prominent personalities exposing the consulting
firm to real dangers of defamation lawsuits. Mind you, better a negative
publicity than no publicity at all. The characters mentioned in the corruption indices
enjoyed media coverage by hitting back to Ipsos and further giving free publicity
to the research firm.
Anyway, this is Africa. The
context explains the queer behavior and dire shortage of leadership.
