Of sensational headlines by press and blueticking wananchi as State officers loot public coffers

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.