The Code says in general, the media should avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to a person’s race, tribe, colour, religion, sex or sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or handicap. These details, it says, should be avoided unless they are crucial to the story.
The late Prof. Edward Said of Columbia University gives the best example of media stigmatization of Islam as a religion of terrorists. He examines the origins and repercussions of the media monolithic image of Islam in his Covering Islam where he advances the argument of the existence of “an intense focus of Muslims and Islam in the American and Western media, most of it characterized by a…highly exaggerated stereotyping and belligerent hostility.”
In early 2006 a section of the media in Kenya could be accused of doing the same thing to the Kikuyu community and other ethnic groups that dwell around Mount Kenya. The term “Mount Kenya Mafia” was used to condemn entire communities around Mount Kenya for the sins of a few individuals who were later disgraced for engagement in corrupt activities. During the November 2005 referendum that gave Kenyans an opportunity to accept or reject the so called Wako draft constitution both the mainstream and the alternative media vigorously campaigned against the draft by condemning it as the work of the Mt. Kenya Mafia even though in it were the best provisions protecting freedom of the media and creating a freedom of information Act.
The overwhelming rejection of the Wako constitution was paradoxically reversed in all the areas around Mount Kenya where the people devised a defence mechanism of accepting the draft as a means of protecting themselves against an avalanche of attacks from the media that stigmatized them all as a bunch of corrupt people. The draft also introduced gender equality which was described by the media as “unafrican” giving the traditional male chauvinism an upper hand. Yet all this was done with impunity.
This is what Edward Said describes as “malicious generalization”. Racial discrimination has been part of Kenyan history from the time the country was colonized more than a hundred years ago. Today, however, the discrimination is more latent and less exhibited publicly though it can still be strongly felt in every society torn apart by a deep rooted economic divide. The media in Kenya do not champion the divisive role of highlighting the divergence between races though deep inside members of different races remain weary. Wring about this feeling, John Maximian Nazareth, who was an elected member of the Kenya Legislative Council for the Western Electoral Area from 1956 to 1960 says in his Brown Man Black Country: “When independence came to Kenya I said to myself that nothing would make me leave –nothing short of Kenya falling under the hell of communism—soul destroying communism. I was born here, in Nairobi. Here were spent my days of early childhood and all my working life. Here I would live and die”.
He continues: “Deep within me was a sense of unease. What would be the attitude of the Africans and us Asians? They had often referred to us as ‘guests’. I had been present at African or Indian-African public meetings before 1950 where we had been called ‘guests’ by Kenyatta. When I became president of the East African Indian National Congress in 1950 I had wanted to take up this issue with him. But the Hindu-Muslim tension within the Indian community dissuaded me. The time seemed inappropriate.”
Nazareth, who was a leader of an association for Indians in East Africa paradoxically was feeling uncomfortable when Kenyatta described him as a ‘guest’ though he obviously would not accept Kenyatta, leave alone an ordinary African, as a member of the Indian Congress. Nazareth fears were based on the possibility of the then discrimination taking an about-turn direction making the Africans a little bit above the Asians.
When it was first started more than a century ago the East African Standard played a pivotal role in intensifying racial hatred and separation which in Kenya was known as the colour bar. This was a phenomenon which spread all over Africa particularly in countries where white settlements had established roots which made them regard the areas they occupied as their own homes. In these parts they also established newspapers to defend their “rights”.
Among white racists who tried to influence white-controlled papers was the Prime Minister of the Central African Federation which was established in 1953 bringing together Nyasaland (Malawi), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Sir Roy Welensky who had great influence over white journalists working for white newspapers serving white settlers. Writing about these papers in Race and Nationalism, Thomas M. Frank says “(at that time, 1959) there (was) no multiracial liberal press in the Federation. (There were) five dailies papers: The Rhodesian Herald, the Evening Standard, the Bulawayo Chronicle , the Northern News and the Central African Post which (were) all controlled by the Argus Group and generally follow(ed) the-middle-of the-road attitude on racial issues of the English language press in South Africa.
But he adds: “A shrill racist weekly, the Citizen concentrate (d) attention (on racial issues and) cater(ed) for the hate market.” According to Frank, Africans who own(ed) newspapers at that time in the so called federation did exactly the same in building up black nationalism against the whites. He says: “George Nyandoro’s African Congress backed Chipupu (Witness) fanned the fires of Southern Rhodesian black nationalism until the banning of Congress in 1959. A controversial English language newspaper for Northern Rhodesian Africans which Frank considered to be liberal, African Times, was forced to close only a few months after its inception. He says there were a number of African newspapers in Southern Rhodesia “but they were all white controlled steered away from unsafe political controversy.”
Strong and negative racial feelings in Kenya did indeed exist for a long time and one of the people who helped to dilute and may be kill them completely was the first President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, who just before independence in 1963 addressed white farmers in Nakuru and said: “I am, a politician, but I am a farmer like you ..I think the soil joins us all and therefore we have a kind of mutual understanding. I you want to understand each other, then the best thing is to talk together…. I believe that the most disturbing point among us is suspicion, fear. These are created by not knowing what the other side is thinking. If we must live together we must work together, we must talk together, exchanging views. This is my belief.” Those words sunk into the heads of all teachers who taught the current generation of Kenyan journalists who believe stories they hear about past discrimination are no more than fairytales. That however does not mean newspapers, radio and TV stations are devoid of all forms of discrimination.
One of the most difficult aspects of journalism in Kenya is the exposure of the emergence of a superior and condescending economic class that continues to exploit the inferior subjugated class of workers and the unemployed. At the risk of appearing to fan the fires of class differences I feel journalists have a responsibility to write about the violation of the second generation human rights in Kenya. Civil and political rights of ordinary Kenyans are also constantly violated by the ruling class. As Whitney M. Young Jr. Says in his To Be Equal, the struggle (in Kenya) is no longer “between whites and blacks, but (it is) between right and wrong. He says: “It is a struggle between people who care and people who are callous.” Sometimes discrimination exists in a manner that is not considered insulting. It is what Kenneth O’reilly calls “respectable racism”.
In his Racial Matters he talks of respectable racism flourishing within the culture and gives example of the “man in the street humming such turn-of-the-century as ‘if the man in the moon were a coon’, while students at Yale and Columbia listened to their professors lecture on black man’s incorrigible morals”. He even gives examples of newspapers writing about respectable racism. The Atlantic Monthly, for example, once posed a rhetorical question “If the stronger and cleverer race is free to impose its will upon ‘new-caught, sullen people’ on the other side of the globe, why not in South Carolina and Mississippi?” Thanks God Kenya does not have journalists who whip up racial feeling to that extent.
One of the major causes of racial discrimination in America is the perception among some white communities that black men are oversexed and therefore a threat to white women. The belief has led to many a newspaper articles promoting racial hatred. Does racism show its ugly head in Kenyan journalism? Yes! Very often. On Thursday, September 8th, for example, Kiss FM posed question to its listeners: Would they elect a Kenyan of Asian origin to be the country’s president? As Catherine Mutoko was asking people to telephone the station and give their answers , “Nyambane” was making constant interjections explaining that is Kenyans were to have a “Mhindi” president then the workers would have to forget payment of overtime and be prepared to work up to 10.00pm at night.
Callers were jokingly suggesting that Kamlesh Patni should be the next president of Kenya. One caller was particularly insulting when she suggested that she would rather vote for a donkey instead of the then leadership of Mwai Kibaki. The innuendo was clear – that ridiculous as it sounded, voting for a Kenyan Asian presidential candidate was better than returning Kibaki to power. If Asians as a race are mentally marginalized then those who are placed in a further distance from the centre are an increasing number of closeted members of the gay community in Kenya.
In May 4th 2002 I wrote in the East African Standard that in most heterosexual African cultures, homosexuality was a taboo even among consenting adults. Inappropriate sexual proclivity is the most repugnant waywardness to African morality. One outstanding characteristic of African culture is that it is basically homophobic and sees homosexuality as an abomination against everything dignified. Africans are simply not able to relate comfortably to people who prefer to have sex with members of their own gender. Yet in many Western countries the entitlement to indulge in the practice is viewed as a human right. In Kenya it is clandestinely widespread and it is the belief of a large portion of the new generation Africans that the gay community should not be blacklisted and ostracized
The media in Kenya has taken no visible stand either for or against the secret gay community. By refusing to discuss the existence of the community amidst us Kenyans are facing a ticking time bomb about to explode over homosexuality. At the moment there seem to be no public rupture between the community and the Kenyan society. While the Kenyan homosexuals pose no danger to the rest of people, very soon they may start to demand official recognition. That may be followed by ruthless gay bashing instead of taking a principled position of regarding them as normal human beings with the right to choose their sexual behaviours and preferences.
This touchy subject must now be discussed boldly and openly by the media because of the sex crisis facing the Catholic Church in America where a number of gay priests have confessed to child molestation. The world has been left astounded and mesmerized by the manner in which the church, believing it was dealing with sin rather than crime, totally failed to deal with the problem by refusing to remove the culprits from priesthood. The inevitable question Kenyans are asking, albeit quietly, is whether we face the same burgeoning problem in our society. The fact that the outrage in the US Catholic Church was kept under wraps for so long may mean it could be repeated anywhere in the world, including Kenya, without the detection of the arm of the law.
The problem that concerns the majority of Kenyans is whether the group indulges in molestation of young boys making them hooked to the behaviour. The crisis in America should help us shed more light to our own society where there is belief that paedophilia also exists. American’s uproar over the scandal is making them face facts about unchaste gay priests and it is a feeling of many Kenyans that we too are facing a ticking time bomb about to explode over the homosexual community amidst us. At the moment there seem to be no public rupture between the community and the Kenyan society.
While the Kenyan homosexuals pose no danger to the rest of the people, very soon they may start to demand official recognition. That may be followed by ruthless gay bashing instead of taking a principled position of regarding them as normal human beings with the right to choose their sexual behaviours and preferences. Kenyans may by nature be against homosexuals but there are some who believe not all the stereotypes about the perverts are true. A lot of them are said to be very useful members of our society. Among the Kenyan intelligentsia are some who believe that in the corridors of justice the gay issue needs to be reviewed in order to see whether the existing underground community is being appropriately treated. Naturally the majority of Kenyans will consider this to be a rather ridiculous proposition. But in a world that is beginning to treat homosexual acts between consenting adults as legally normal, the community in Kenya may soon start to wage a struggle to gain similar recognition. And the media can play a vital role in educating the entire community about this issue.
There are many who believe anyone’s sexual orientation is a private and personal affair. Some modern straight Kenyans knowingly mix with their homosexual friends freely despite the fact that for a long time to come our society will consider homosexuality the most sinful stamp of shame. There is evidence to accept that sooner or later homosexual militants in our society will be as common as they are in the Western world and no one will dare challenge their suitability to survive with the rest of the people as equal human beings. The bigotry and intolerance that shapes the hate attitude against the gay community will soon be a thing of the past. Making these observations may put some people in a very nervous situation, but any society that is unafraid of facing the truth always succeeds in producing the best of all possible worlds.
Be that as it may homosexuality can never justify paedophilia which the media must always vehemently oppose. One is regarded as a sexual orientation and the other as a terrible crime. It seems to most observers that despite our society’s aversion to gayness it exists secretly and is responsible for paedophilia. Though Kenyans’ faith in boarding schools remains firm there is very serious suspicion that in some of them sexual abuse of young boys goes on undetected and will soon become a major scandal. Something extremely shocking may be revealed when the moral standards of the managers of the boarding institutions are closely examined. The mere mention of this subject is likely to make emotions run high among teachers and parents.
The truth is that morality is sinking in boarding schools and the fearful indicator of that is the proliferation of clandestine gay societies in many institutions where a number of young Kenyans consider African cultural values and attitudes outdated and outmoded. The wave of paedophilia scandal is sweeping in many Kenyan education institutions and when the truth is discovered it will be extremely hard not to loathe the people molesting children they are entrusted to take care of. One critical aspect of what goes on in boarding schools is that it has received so little attention and the entire society appears unconcerned about the crime of paedophilia that is said to be taking place throughout the country.
The allegations say that some of the elder boys use their powers to violate the trust given to them to look after the young ones. To avoid repeating in Kenya what has happened in the US the country needs to set moralistic standards that would make sure Africans decency does not decline at the introduction of Western style of life. There is a crying need for an exposé to be done on this subject and before that it remains a major challenge to journalism in Kenya. There are some Kenyan societies that consider sexual virtue and chastity more precious than life itself. Pederasts in education institutions who make regular homosexual advances towards children must therefore be exposed and dealt with sooner rather than later. Journalists have to take action. Now!
May be the most challenging ethical problem in journalism in this country concerns handling of tribal issues. Reading the way political stories are handled even by the mainstream media houses it is clear that ethnicity is rampant in the profession. Just before President Mwai Kibaki took over office in 2002 many stories were written about how the Kalenjins were “plotting” to make sure Kikuyus would never take over political power in Kenya. There were so-called “revelations” that Gema politicians were also scheming a strategy to make sure that after President Moi the leadership in this country would fall into their hands. Those kinds of stories were both shocking and dangerous. They helped to tear the country apart along tribal lines.
The rise of ethnic consciousness in this country seemed to be the greatest threat to our national unity. Though accepted by all as an antithesis of nationalism , tribalism appeared to be the central theme of most political stories published and broadcast by the generation of Kenyan journalists of the time .Whereas it was a fact that people could never change their ethnic backgrounds nor their cultural and linguistic origins, these diversities did not necessarily play contradictory roles to nationalism. Tanzanians under the late Julius Nyerere have proved that these natural backgrounds of most Africans can indeed be transformed into positive inputs in the creation of a strong and united nation. But left to the manipulation and abuse by the continent’s village tyrants , who very often try and may be even succeed in influencing the thinking of journalists, these otherwise good qualities of our cultures and languages could be abused to pull people apart and create animosity where there was harmony. Slanted presentations of stories to support or oppose ethnic leaders threaten to do just that.
It is hard to imagine journalists who are pocketed by leaders appealing for tribal loyalty in order to take over the leadership of the country nationally. Yet in mid 2006 when the country was preparing for the 2007 general elections I could not help wondering whether the stories about tribal groupings in politics were real scoops. By publishing such stories newspapers hoped to engender furious outbursts and spirited debates. Often stories were printed to be grating, ingratiating or both. Yet readers always loved them even when they obviously loved to hate them because they emotionally either agreed or disagreed with them. So before some people accuse the national media of fanning the flames of tribal animosity by publishing tribal rivalries, let us examine what the media in Kenya normally do to promote or destroy national unity.
National news media in Kenya find themselves trying to fulfill a dual purpose of probing the problem of ethnicity and promoting nationalism amid political tension within the community. Whereas the first commandment of the Kenyan nation should be to strive for real cohesion, that of journalism is to probe the truth and expose it for all to see. If therefore there was an ulterior motive in plotting for a one ethnic group to fight another, the media had an obligation to expose the truth however dangerous doing so could be. If ever there will be ethnic harmony in Kenya to resemble the unity in Tanzania, however, the media must play a major role in finding ways to encourage civil discourse on sensitive issues such as communal land and inter tribal marriages that are bound to bring about cultural assimilation.
Needless to say this goal cannot be achieved unless there is proper journalistic commitment to professional independence. Today there are serious allegations about editorial bias, which sometimes reveal the editors' own ethnical loyalties. To many Kenyans, ethnic political groupings are something we have been suspecting all the time. Some may call it ethnic nationalism others may call it tribal chauvinism deserving no better place than the dustbin of history. Whatever the case may be sensational headline writers get extra excited by the stories based on ethnicity because if we want to be honest with ourselves we have to pause a number of questions: Is it a fact that some segments of the Kenyan community are hard to penetrate? Are there also sacred cows among tribal chauvinists?
If we have to answer these questions honestly we must accept the fact that there are a good number of large Kenyan tribes which have dreams of taking over the leadership of this country from what is seen today as the Kikuyu political epoch under Mwai Kibaki. Before journalists agree to be used by chauvinistic leaders eager to segment the country along ethnic lines they should stop, step back and think about the implications of a tribally structured system of governance. Time has come to reject leaders who insist on making everyone reflect the ethnic makeup of the entire nation before thinking of anything else.
The obligation of making Kenyans accept that ours is a community of diverse people may be hard to get rid of. But I believe whoever wants to take over political power will have to sing a song of national unity no matter how artificial that unity may appear to be at the moment. It is irrelevant how vehement the accusation against Moi's sincerity when he talked of national unity may be. The truth is the fact that his dream of love, peace and unity will always represent the utopia of Kenya's ethnic relations. It will always be cited by those involved in our nation's debate on nationalism as justification for ending tribalism.
Though for the moment it is very difficult for Kenyan leaders not to view each other through the lens of ethnicity Kenya's political stability will depend entirely on all tribes striving to look at and judge one another without the consideration of a tribe. When the debate on the succession issue hots up Kenyans should beware of hot-blooded demagogues who will try to manipulate journalists to light up fires of hatred. They will also be ready to spill blood of innocent Kenyans. Left to preach doctrines from their overheated heads such leaders could make violence erupt in our country. Yet there are among us some leaders who are engaged in the heroic efforts to make our communities more united than they have been in generations. Let such leaders stand up and be counted now.
Debates on ethnic nationalism conducted through journalism were so dangerous that they threatened the whole country to pull the pin on the hand-grenade that happened to be our tribal diversity. Whatever ignited these debates could always lead to a painful realization that many Kenyan political leaders had yet to be sensitized to the feeling of tribal invisibility. If the tribal debate were stirring controversy, they most certainly also created ripples of animosity that were putting the entire nation's stability at stake. The paradox was that this sad eventuality was invariably the very aim of the initiators of the so called debates.
Naturally when our national leaders went on a verbal rampage throwing tribal dirt at each other it become a major national news item. Indeed it was a searing story that dominated national front pages throughout Mwai Kibaki’s first term in office. Which meant other serious stories concerning the state of the economy and the manner the latest constitutional reforms strategic talks were being conducted, especially by the Ufungamano group, had to go elsewhere as briefs. Editors could hardly be accused of betraying their readers' trust because the scoop of the tribal debate actually helped to show how low we had stooped in the political Darwinism of survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence.
It also proved that some of our leaders had lost sight of the issues that were very dear and close to the people's hearts. Their expressed views on tribal loyalties appeared to most sane people to be not only sophomoric but also extremely spiteful and insulting to the intelligence of the people of this country.
The younger generation in this country use mock dialect to joke about our ethnic diversity. They produce hilarious commercials that offer a whiff of humour that perpetuates ethnic sensibility, which to me is absolutely necessary for societal tolerability. It exhibits mature open-mindedness. The end result is pleasant jocular laughter at our own elder's manner of speaking both Kiswahili and English. But the behaviour of the so-called political elders of this country is neither humorous nor a joking matter. The ranting and raving of people like David Mwenje and Jackson Kalweo only exposed their ugly and out-of-date parochialism. The unbalanced views expressed by leaders on ethnic issues simply proved that the entire debate was a discussion gone wrong. In fact Kenyan hardly heard any debate at all.
The late Prof. Edward Said of Columbia University gives the best example of media stigmatization of Islam as a religion of terrorists. He examines the origins and repercussions of the media monolithic image of Islam in his Covering Islam where he advances the argument of the existence of “an intense focus of Muslims and Islam in the American and Western media, most of it characterized by a…highly exaggerated stereotyping and belligerent hostility.”
In early 2006 a section of the media in Kenya could be accused of doing the same thing to the Kikuyu community and other ethnic groups that dwell around Mount Kenya. The term “Mount Kenya Mafia” was used to condemn entire communities around Mount Kenya for the sins of a few individuals who were later disgraced for engagement in corrupt activities. During the November 2005 referendum that gave Kenyans an opportunity to accept or reject the so called Wako draft constitution both the mainstream and the alternative media vigorously campaigned against the draft by condemning it as the work of the Mt. Kenya Mafia even though in it were the best provisions protecting freedom of the media and creating a freedom of information Act.
The overwhelming rejection of the Wako constitution was paradoxically reversed in all the areas around Mount Kenya where the people devised a defence mechanism of accepting the draft as a means of protecting themselves against an avalanche of attacks from the media that stigmatized them all as a bunch of corrupt people. The draft also introduced gender equality which was described by the media as “unafrican” giving the traditional male chauvinism an upper hand. Yet all this was done with impunity.
This is what Edward Said describes as “malicious generalization”. Racial discrimination has been part of Kenyan history from the time the country was colonized more than a hundred years ago. Today, however, the discrimination is more latent and less exhibited publicly though it can still be strongly felt in every society torn apart by a deep rooted economic divide. The media in Kenya do not champion the divisive role of highlighting the divergence between races though deep inside members of different races remain weary. Wring about this feeling, John Maximian Nazareth, who was an elected member of the Kenya Legislative Council for the Western Electoral Area from 1956 to 1960 says in his Brown Man Black Country: “When independence came to Kenya I said to myself that nothing would make me leave –nothing short of Kenya falling under the hell of communism—soul destroying communism. I was born here, in Nairobi. Here were spent my days of early childhood and all my working life. Here I would live and die”.
He continues: “Deep within me was a sense of unease. What would be the attitude of the Africans and us Asians? They had often referred to us as ‘guests’. I had been present at African or Indian-African public meetings before 1950 where we had been called ‘guests’ by Kenyatta. When I became president of the East African Indian National Congress in 1950 I had wanted to take up this issue with him. But the Hindu-Muslim tension within the Indian community dissuaded me. The time seemed inappropriate.”
Nazareth, who was a leader of an association for Indians in East Africa paradoxically was feeling uncomfortable when Kenyatta described him as a ‘guest’ though he obviously would not accept Kenyatta, leave alone an ordinary African, as a member of the Indian Congress. Nazareth fears were based on the possibility of the then discrimination taking an about-turn direction making the Africans a little bit above the Asians.
When it was first started more than a century ago the East African Standard played a pivotal role in intensifying racial hatred and separation which in Kenya was known as the colour bar. This was a phenomenon which spread all over Africa particularly in countries where white settlements had established roots which made them regard the areas they occupied as their own homes. In these parts they also established newspapers to defend their “rights”.
Among white racists who tried to influence white-controlled papers was the Prime Minister of the Central African Federation which was established in 1953 bringing together Nyasaland (Malawi), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Sir Roy Welensky who had great influence over white journalists working for white newspapers serving white settlers. Writing about these papers in Race and Nationalism, Thomas M. Frank says “(at that time, 1959) there (was) no multiracial liberal press in the Federation. (There were) five dailies papers: The Rhodesian Herald, the Evening Standard, the Bulawayo Chronicle , the Northern News and the Central African Post which (were) all controlled by the Argus Group and generally follow(ed) the-middle-of the-road attitude on racial issues of the English language press in South Africa.
But he adds: “A shrill racist weekly, the Citizen concentrate (d) attention (on racial issues and) cater(ed) for the hate market.” According to Frank, Africans who own(ed) newspapers at that time in the so called federation did exactly the same in building up black nationalism against the whites. He says: “George Nyandoro’s African Congress backed Chipupu (Witness) fanned the fires of Southern Rhodesian black nationalism until the banning of Congress in 1959. A controversial English language newspaper for Northern Rhodesian Africans which Frank considered to be liberal, African Times, was forced to close only a few months after its inception. He says there were a number of African newspapers in Southern Rhodesia “but they were all white controlled steered away from unsafe political controversy.”
Strong and negative racial feelings in Kenya did indeed exist for a long time and one of the people who helped to dilute and may be kill them completely was the first President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, who just before independence in 1963 addressed white farmers in Nakuru and said: “I am, a politician, but I am a farmer like you ..I think the soil joins us all and therefore we have a kind of mutual understanding. I you want to understand each other, then the best thing is to talk together…. I believe that the most disturbing point among us is suspicion, fear. These are created by not knowing what the other side is thinking. If we must live together we must work together, we must talk together, exchanging views. This is my belief.” Those words sunk into the heads of all teachers who taught the current generation of Kenyan journalists who believe stories they hear about past discrimination are no more than fairytales. That however does not mean newspapers, radio and TV stations are devoid of all forms of discrimination.
One of the most difficult aspects of journalism in Kenya is the exposure of the emergence of a superior and condescending economic class that continues to exploit the inferior subjugated class of workers and the unemployed. At the risk of appearing to fan the fires of class differences I feel journalists have a responsibility to write about the violation of the second generation human rights in Kenya. Civil and political rights of ordinary Kenyans are also constantly violated by the ruling class. As Whitney M. Young Jr. Says in his To Be Equal, the struggle (in Kenya) is no longer “between whites and blacks, but (it is) between right and wrong. He says: “It is a struggle between people who care and people who are callous.” Sometimes discrimination exists in a manner that is not considered insulting. It is what Kenneth O’reilly calls “respectable racism”.
In his Racial Matters he talks of respectable racism flourishing within the culture and gives example of the “man in the street humming such turn-of-the-century as ‘if the man in the moon were a coon’, while students at Yale and Columbia listened to their professors lecture on black man’s incorrigible morals”. He even gives examples of newspapers writing about respectable racism. The Atlantic Monthly, for example, once posed a rhetorical question “If the stronger and cleverer race is free to impose its will upon ‘new-caught, sullen people’ on the other side of the globe, why not in South Carolina and Mississippi?” Thanks God Kenya does not have journalists who whip up racial feeling to that extent.
One of the major causes of racial discrimination in America is the perception among some white communities that black men are oversexed and therefore a threat to white women. The belief has led to many a newspaper articles promoting racial hatred. Does racism show its ugly head in Kenyan journalism? Yes! Very often. On Thursday, September 8th, for example, Kiss FM posed question to its listeners: Would they elect a Kenyan of Asian origin to be the country’s president? As Catherine Mutoko was asking people to telephone the station and give their answers , “Nyambane” was making constant interjections explaining that is Kenyans were to have a “Mhindi” president then the workers would have to forget payment of overtime and be prepared to work up to 10.00pm at night.
Callers were jokingly suggesting that Kamlesh Patni should be the next president of Kenya. One caller was particularly insulting when she suggested that she would rather vote for a donkey instead of the then leadership of Mwai Kibaki. The innuendo was clear – that ridiculous as it sounded, voting for a Kenyan Asian presidential candidate was better than returning Kibaki to power. If Asians as a race are mentally marginalized then those who are placed in a further distance from the centre are an increasing number of closeted members of the gay community in Kenya.
In May 4th 2002 I wrote in the East African Standard that in most heterosexual African cultures, homosexuality was a taboo even among consenting adults. Inappropriate sexual proclivity is the most repugnant waywardness to African morality. One outstanding characteristic of African culture is that it is basically homophobic and sees homosexuality as an abomination against everything dignified. Africans are simply not able to relate comfortably to people who prefer to have sex with members of their own gender. Yet in many Western countries the entitlement to indulge in the practice is viewed as a human right. In Kenya it is clandestinely widespread and it is the belief of a large portion of the new generation Africans that the gay community should not be blacklisted and ostracized
The media in Kenya has taken no visible stand either for or against the secret gay community. By refusing to discuss the existence of the community amidst us Kenyans are facing a ticking time bomb about to explode over homosexuality. At the moment there seem to be no public rupture between the community and the Kenyan society. While the Kenyan homosexuals pose no danger to the rest of people, very soon they may start to demand official recognition. That may be followed by ruthless gay bashing instead of taking a principled position of regarding them as normal human beings with the right to choose their sexual behaviours and preferences.
This touchy subject must now be discussed boldly and openly by the media because of the sex crisis facing the Catholic Church in America where a number of gay priests have confessed to child molestation. The world has been left astounded and mesmerized by the manner in which the church, believing it was dealing with sin rather than crime, totally failed to deal with the problem by refusing to remove the culprits from priesthood. The inevitable question Kenyans are asking, albeit quietly, is whether we face the same burgeoning problem in our society. The fact that the outrage in the US Catholic Church was kept under wraps for so long may mean it could be repeated anywhere in the world, including Kenya, without the detection of the arm of the law.
The problem that concerns the majority of Kenyans is whether the group indulges in molestation of young boys making them hooked to the behaviour. The crisis in America should help us shed more light to our own society where there is belief that paedophilia also exists. American’s uproar over the scandal is making them face facts about unchaste gay priests and it is a feeling of many Kenyans that we too are facing a ticking time bomb about to explode over the homosexual community amidst us. At the moment there seem to be no public rupture between the community and the Kenyan society.
While the Kenyan homosexuals pose no danger to the rest of the people, very soon they may start to demand official recognition. That may be followed by ruthless gay bashing instead of taking a principled position of regarding them as normal human beings with the right to choose their sexual behaviours and preferences. Kenyans may by nature be against homosexuals but there are some who believe not all the stereotypes about the perverts are true. A lot of them are said to be very useful members of our society. Among the Kenyan intelligentsia are some who believe that in the corridors of justice the gay issue needs to be reviewed in order to see whether the existing underground community is being appropriately treated. Naturally the majority of Kenyans will consider this to be a rather ridiculous proposition. But in a world that is beginning to treat homosexual acts between consenting adults as legally normal, the community in Kenya may soon start to wage a struggle to gain similar recognition. And the media can play a vital role in educating the entire community about this issue.
There are many who believe anyone’s sexual orientation is a private and personal affair. Some modern straight Kenyans knowingly mix with their homosexual friends freely despite the fact that for a long time to come our society will consider homosexuality the most sinful stamp of shame. There is evidence to accept that sooner or later homosexual militants in our society will be as common as they are in the Western world and no one will dare challenge their suitability to survive with the rest of the people as equal human beings. The bigotry and intolerance that shapes the hate attitude against the gay community will soon be a thing of the past. Making these observations may put some people in a very nervous situation, but any society that is unafraid of facing the truth always succeeds in producing the best of all possible worlds.
Be that as it may homosexuality can never justify paedophilia which the media must always vehemently oppose. One is regarded as a sexual orientation and the other as a terrible crime. It seems to most observers that despite our society’s aversion to gayness it exists secretly and is responsible for paedophilia. Though Kenyans’ faith in boarding schools remains firm there is very serious suspicion that in some of them sexual abuse of young boys goes on undetected and will soon become a major scandal. Something extremely shocking may be revealed when the moral standards of the managers of the boarding institutions are closely examined. The mere mention of this subject is likely to make emotions run high among teachers and parents.
The truth is that morality is sinking in boarding schools and the fearful indicator of that is the proliferation of clandestine gay societies in many institutions where a number of young Kenyans consider African cultural values and attitudes outdated and outmoded. The wave of paedophilia scandal is sweeping in many Kenyan education institutions and when the truth is discovered it will be extremely hard not to loathe the people molesting children they are entrusted to take care of. One critical aspect of what goes on in boarding schools is that it has received so little attention and the entire society appears unconcerned about the crime of paedophilia that is said to be taking place throughout the country.
The allegations say that some of the elder boys use their powers to violate the trust given to them to look after the young ones. To avoid repeating in Kenya what has happened in the US the country needs to set moralistic standards that would make sure Africans decency does not decline at the introduction of Western style of life. There is a crying need for an exposé to be done on this subject and before that it remains a major challenge to journalism in Kenya. There are some Kenyan societies that consider sexual virtue and chastity more precious than life itself. Pederasts in education institutions who make regular homosexual advances towards children must therefore be exposed and dealt with sooner rather than later. Journalists have to take action. Now!
May be the most challenging ethical problem in journalism in this country concerns handling of tribal issues. Reading the way political stories are handled even by the mainstream media houses it is clear that ethnicity is rampant in the profession. Just before President Mwai Kibaki took over office in 2002 many stories were written about how the Kalenjins were “plotting” to make sure Kikuyus would never take over political power in Kenya. There were so-called “revelations” that Gema politicians were also scheming a strategy to make sure that after President Moi the leadership in this country would fall into their hands. Those kinds of stories were both shocking and dangerous. They helped to tear the country apart along tribal lines.
The rise of ethnic consciousness in this country seemed to be the greatest threat to our national unity. Though accepted by all as an antithesis of nationalism , tribalism appeared to be the central theme of most political stories published and broadcast by the generation of Kenyan journalists of the time .Whereas it was a fact that people could never change their ethnic backgrounds nor their cultural and linguistic origins, these diversities did not necessarily play contradictory roles to nationalism. Tanzanians under the late Julius Nyerere have proved that these natural backgrounds of most Africans can indeed be transformed into positive inputs in the creation of a strong and united nation. But left to the manipulation and abuse by the continent’s village tyrants , who very often try and may be even succeed in influencing the thinking of journalists, these otherwise good qualities of our cultures and languages could be abused to pull people apart and create animosity where there was harmony. Slanted presentations of stories to support or oppose ethnic leaders threaten to do just that.
It is hard to imagine journalists who are pocketed by leaders appealing for tribal loyalty in order to take over the leadership of the country nationally. Yet in mid 2006 when the country was preparing for the 2007 general elections I could not help wondering whether the stories about tribal groupings in politics were real scoops. By publishing such stories newspapers hoped to engender furious outbursts and spirited debates. Often stories were printed to be grating, ingratiating or both. Yet readers always loved them even when they obviously loved to hate them because they emotionally either agreed or disagreed with them. So before some people accuse the national media of fanning the flames of tribal animosity by publishing tribal rivalries, let us examine what the media in Kenya normally do to promote or destroy national unity.
National news media in Kenya find themselves trying to fulfill a dual purpose of probing the problem of ethnicity and promoting nationalism amid political tension within the community. Whereas the first commandment of the Kenyan nation should be to strive for real cohesion, that of journalism is to probe the truth and expose it for all to see. If therefore there was an ulterior motive in plotting for a one ethnic group to fight another, the media had an obligation to expose the truth however dangerous doing so could be. If ever there will be ethnic harmony in Kenya to resemble the unity in Tanzania, however, the media must play a major role in finding ways to encourage civil discourse on sensitive issues such as communal land and inter tribal marriages that are bound to bring about cultural assimilation.
Needless to say this goal cannot be achieved unless there is proper journalistic commitment to professional independence. Today there are serious allegations about editorial bias, which sometimes reveal the editors' own ethnical loyalties. To many Kenyans, ethnic political groupings are something we have been suspecting all the time. Some may call it ethnic nationalism others may call it tribal chauvinism deserving no better place than the dustbin of history. Whatever the case may be sensational headline writers get extra excited by the stories based on ethnicity because if we want to be honest with ourselves we have to pause a number of questions: Is it a fact that some segments of the Kenyan community are hard to penetrate? Are there also sacred cows among tribal chauvinists?
If we have to answer these questions honestly we must accept the fact that there are a good number of large Kenyan tribes which have dreams of taking over the leadership of this country from what is seen today as the Kikuyu political epoch under Mwai Kibaki. Before journalists agree to be used by chauvinistic leaders eager to segment the country along ethnic lines they should stop, step back and think about the implications of a tribally structured system of governance. Time has come to reject leaders who insist on making everyone reflect the ethnic makeup of the entire nation before thinking of anything else.
The obligation of making Kenyans accept that ours is a community of diverse people may be hard to get rid of. But I believe whoever wants to take over political power will have to sing a song of national unity no matter how artificial that unity may appear to be at the moment. It is irrelevant how vehement the accusation against Moi's sincerity when he talked of national unity may be. The truth is the fact that his dream of love, peace and unity will always represent the utopia of Kenya's ethnic relations. It will always be cited by those involved in our nation's debate on nationalism as justification for ending tribalism.
Though for the moment it is very difficult for Kenyan leaders not to view each other through the lens of ethnicity Kenya's political stability will depend entirely on all tribes striving to look at and judge one another without the consideration of a tribe. When the debate on the succession issue hots up Kenyans should beware of hot-blooded demagogues who will try to manipulate journalists to light up fires of hatred. They will also be ready to spill blood of innocent Kenyans. Left to preach doctrines from their overheated heads such leaders could make violence erupt in our country. Yet there are among us some leaders who are engaged in the heroic efforts to make our communities more united than they have been in generations. Let such leaders stand up and be counted now.
Debates on ethnic nationalism conducted through journalism were so dangerous that they threatened the whole country to pull the pin on the hand-grenade that happened to be our tribal diversity. Whatever ignited these debates could always lead to a painful realization that many Kenyan political leaders had yet to be sensitized to the feeling of tribal invisibility. If the tribal debate were stirring controversy, they most certainly also created ripples of animosity that were putting the entire nation's stability at stake. The paradox was that this sad eventuality was invariably the very aim of the initiators of the so called debates.
Naturally when our national leaders went on a verbal rampage throwing tribal dirt at each other it become a major national news item. Indeed it was a searing story that dominated national front pages throughout Mwai Kibaki’s first term in office. Which meant other serious stories concerning the state of the economy and the manner the latest constitutional reforms strategic talks were being conducted, especially by the Ufungamano group, had to go elsewhere as briefs. Editors could hardly be accused of betraying their readers' trust because the scoop of the tribal debate actually helped to show how low we had stooped in the political Darwinism of survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence.
It also proved that some of our leaders had lost sight of the issues that were very dear and close to the people's hearts. Their expressed views on tribal loyalties appeared to most sane people to be not only sophomoric but also extremely spiteful and insulting to the intelligence of the people of this country.
The younger generation in this country use mock dialect to joke about our ethnic diversity. They produce hilarious commercials that offer a whiff of humour that perpetuates ethnic sensibility, which to me is absolutely necessary for societal tolerability. It exhibits mature open-mindedness. The end result is pleasant jocular laughter at our own elder's manner of speaking both Kiswahili and English. But the behaviour of the so-called political elders of this country is neither humorous nor a joking matter. The ranting and raving of people like David Mwenje and Jackson Kalweo only exposed their ugly and out-of-date parochialism. The unbalanced views expressed by leaders on ethnic issues simply proved that the entire debate was a discussion gone wrong. In fact Kenyan hardly heard any debate at all.
2 comments:
This is brilliant. But I thought it was you who coined the phrase, Mt. Kenya Mafia.....
Perhaps it would be better to discuss tolerance rather than the ambiguous expression "societal tolerability". Too much jargon clouds the issues.
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