Before you tell me "ilikuwa kwa magazeti"....

News & Politics
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…think about this report from the Media Observer, the online publication of the Media Council of Kenya, the Kenya Media’s watchdog. The story a lot of you quoted to bash the government was obviously cooked up in a propaganda lab and passed on to the media (no prize for guessing it was together with some envelopes), some of who were even too lazy to edit.

[SIZE=7]How media bungled outcome of Uhuru’s China trip[/SIZE]
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Kenya’s mainstream media last week failed a couple of important tests: one, original reporting on the outcome of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s trip to China; two, how to write clearly on what happened there.

Let’s skip the furore about the President’s alleged failure to secure some Sh368 billion in controversial loans to extend the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from
Naivasha to Kisumu. Reporting on what Kenya actually got was muddled.

We looked at five different online news reports on Friday, April 26 by the Nation, the Standard, the Star, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) and Capital FM.

All carried startlingly similar headlines. Three carried the exact same intro. And all failed to clarify what exactly Kenya got from China.
While all five headlines stated that Kenya got Sh67 billion, the Nation wrote that China gave Kenya the money. That was misleading. You’ll see why in a bit.
The Standard’s headline said, “Kenya signs Sh67 billion deal with China for Konza Project, JKIA expressway.” It was the more accurate headline of the day. But the body explained nothing about the financing.

The Star, KBC and Capital FM wrote shockingly copycat prose.

On the one hand, all three headlines said Kenya “secures” Sh67 billion. On the other hand, the intro left no doubt about the uniform absence of original reporting.
All three wrote this intro: “President Uhuru Kenyatta today [KBC said Friday] witnessed the signing of two project delivery agreements totaling to Sh67.5 billion through concessional financing and Public Private Partnership (PPP).”

No kidding. They said the same thing. Word for word. Can anybody think of any plausible explanation for this, besides that all three may have lifted this text, verbatim, from some prepared press statement?
But wait. This apparent “lifting” was not the worst failure of journalism.
A more curious thing happened in three strange words, repeated by all five media houses. They all said that the President witnessed the signing of “project delivery documents.”
None thought to tell readers what “project delivery documents” was in plain English. And the ensuing public chatter betrayed the large confusion that the media threw open.
Practically all subsequent audience responses in written comments, social media and radio chatter mistakenly took it that while the President failed to secure the previously touted Sh368 billion for the SGR, the country got Sh67 billions in loans for Konza and an expressway in Nairobi.

How? Well, Kenyans already equate any mention of China money with debt. The media’s failure to explain the new facts reinforced this unintended fallacy.
A day after the bungled news story, on April 27, a random exchange under economist David Ndii’s twitter handle clarified the matter.

@DavidNdii: This was said by a senior Chinese official last week (paraphrase): Corruption is not the biggest challenge in your country, we have big corruption in China too – biggest problem is your leaders do not care, and it’s such a tragedy because you have everything else going for you.

@chothep: This was beyond accurate. I hope the “denial” of the loan will mean they getting tough on our marauding leaders who globe [sic] world capitals seeking personal deals.

@geogias: But they got over 200B. Didn’t see where they were denied loans.

@DavidNdii: Really? How did I miss that?

@geogias: 67B for Konza city is one such

@DavidNdii: Check your facts. They signed PPP concession to build JKIA-Westlands viaduct (Sh51b) and Sh17b MOU with Huawei to invest in Konza (assuming Konza is built). Both are Foreign Direct Investments, not loans.

And God said, let there be light! So much for the “project delivery agreements” mumbo jumbo that all media fed the country.

Two more things. A) China did not give away money, as the Nation’s headline might have misled readers. B) Somebody at the Star, KBC and Capital FM should look up the word, “secure” in the dictionary. Reuters attributed it with, “the President’s office said on Friday.” Our local news houses, which clearly did little journalism outside the “press statement,” definitely misled readers.

And now to the story that was not written: how did the country start chattering that Uhuru and his handshake counterpart Raila Odinga were going to China to get billions of shillings in loans to extend the SGR to Kisumu? Who fed the media a story about an agreement that was not yet an agreement? And why did the media buy the whole kit and caboodle? [COLOR=rgb(209, 72, 65)]Look, either the country’s top communication officers just went through a week of spectacular incompetence [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]or somebody orchestrated a deliberate, devious setup to embarrass the President and his entourage to China[COLOR=rgb(209, 72, 65)].

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These are the same ngo western coons who would sell mommy to the highest bidder just to rub a shoulder with mûthûngû.
To them, nothing good comes ftom Kenya unless it has a mûthûngûs stamp of approval.
Thing is Kenya is in a unique situation here, and the Naivasha Malaba stretch is a huge burgaining chip for Kenya as the shaineez are rubbing their hands in glee while Ug is waiting in anticipation to make the plunge.

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Ni za kufunga nyama

4

This is why I no longer have an aerial attached to my roof. Watching the news is just putting yourself in a position to be misinformed. On social media it is practically the same thing only that we have more people interrogating the information whether wrong or right.

I came to the conclusion long time ago during the defunct presidential debate when it was clear there was a witch hunt against Uhuru in favor of Raila. If they were willing to influence an election in that manner what can’t they do for a brown envelope?

5

Uliza @FieldMarshal CouchP what media is.

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If you have noticed, Kenyans are accustomed to bad news. We have a lot of negative energy in us. I don’t blame them…Imagine the run away corruption, unemployment, high taxation, country reeling in debts, lack of credit from banks, gov’t killing SME’s…I mean everywhere you go, there is something negative happening and the Kenyan media is taking advantage of this to feed the public with what they want to hear. It’s proven positive news do not sell that’s why whenever an opportunity emerges to sell some negative news, whether its real or propaganda, they capitalize on it.

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Could this perception be shaped by manipulating news like the one cited above? How often do the media publish some people’s propaganda as news?

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Grey’s law states: “Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”

9

hakunanga kitu kama economics reporter?
ama law reporter? ama technology reporter?
mtu mwenye amesoma journalism + kitu ingine?

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There is a intricate misinformation war centred on this SGR. As a showcase of Belt and Road initiative in Africa, its attacked for shifting the trade route fully to Asia.
In 2018, someone created a fake news website just to break the news of Mombasa port as collateral to SGR and advance the notion of asset capture by China. What was interesting all our media and west media like CNN and BBC attributed that widely shared news to that source as authoritative fact. However one actually searched the page and informed them it exists only for week. The account went dormant soon after. Beijing and Nairobi have since clarified such asset collateral doesn’t exist.

That said its also our own mistake internally. We have a new State House PSCU team that is very silent and non-proactive. They are never ahead of the news cycle. We have a government spokesperson, CS’s, PS’s, parastatal chiefs all handling their own communication in a disjointed manner. What happened to merging all government communications from PDU, PSCU, spokesperson etc under one unit at OP in the new role led by CS Matiangi.

Then I noticed President Uhuru foreign trips are prone lately to mistakes from official communication channels. In UN UNGA summit it was announced he had secured 1 trillion shillings ($10 billion) for the housing agenda from UN habitat. I was happy since that the entire amount needed in one go. It was clarified later as $ 1.5 billion or 150 billion. In Namibia his Twitter page went on an attack such that Chief of Staff Waita from here State House intervened to shut it down. But the worst was the usage of one of the Tel No’s associated to President Uhuru to call Merali, ask for 80 million and have it delivered.

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Ni kama siku hizi ni tumbo reporters tu wako.

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Yes…scandinavians have been subtly promoting messages and flauting narratives in the media, something geared to enhancing to safeguard and protect the society, heritage, traditions(values), and customs since the end of the second world war.
It"s part of the civic education, AND, flauting lies through the media is regarded as extremely uncouth and is punishable by law.
But in my dearest Kenya, it is “maendeleo/kuona mbele” hating on our soil.

13

Very well put.

14

Even KBC? Daaamn,where is Lee Njeeru when you need him? Suing his former boss…so sad.

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Hehe… VS don’t ruin your health by trying so hard to defend this government. You’ll get HBP and ulcers for nothing.

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Look at the exchange between David Ndii and Nzioka Waita. And that is even before PS Hinga comes into play with his housing scam.#

The incompetence of the Country’s top communication officers is incredible. Only a more incompetent fool like Jameson I would retain these incompetent yes-men and let them spin his PR.

17

Where are the contract documents that Uhuru promised us?

The govt is to blame. The 360 billion story was there even before Uhuru left for China. Why didn’t govt clarify at that time? Only to wait until they have been told off for them to come out crying? Why did Macharia talk about suspending the SGR talk and focusing on the Meter Gauge railway?

18

Why should Uhuru come back with loans or anything from China. The Chinese don’t owe us a railway or anything.

Why must we always get money or have things done for us by the Chinese or other nations.
When are we ever going to grow up, and gain the confidence, to use our resources wisely and to do things for ourselves.

Perhaps Uhuru should stop begging, we can stay as we are, until we learn. If we need the train to reach Kisumu, we need to get up and do it.

19

Perhaps you did not understand the import of the article. It is saying someone set you up to believe the prez went to beg for money for rail so they later tell you he failed.

20

I understood, I am saying the President does not have to beg for rail money or anything else, in which case no one should set him up, criticise or declared him a failure over such matters.
The Chinese are not obligated to loan to any nations.