With 18 months remaining ahead of the 2022 General Election, once more we will be interrogating the contribution of the media in the process of identifying and enabling Kenyans to elect leaders with some record.
With the confusion and historical tribal voting in the country, media will be on the spot in the search and entrenchment of political accountability in the country. Whichever media house journalists work for and whoever owns it, the establishment of strong and functional elections reporting desks is an imperative the media cannot ignore.
Such strong desks staffed by veteran journalists, backed up with strong research and fact-checking desks is critical, and away from the usual intra media competition for exclusive content, either media owners or editors must start thinking about joint ventures and productions to save maximize on economies of scale.
This should already be tested, should there be the anticipated referendum. Looking at what has happened in our neighbouring countries, and given the high octane politics already being witnessed in the country, depending on technology to comprehensively report on the elections starting with the political party primaries, appeals up to the elections will be demanding, and within a depressed newsroom environment, innovation, creativity and serious deployment will be expected ahead of 2020.
Already the possibility of politically sponsored content through online platforms and media outlets is real, and it will require journalists to rise above their political likings to more professional content.
It is not easy in the newsrooms as people think, and editors strain and disagree over stories, and this is not exceptional, but we expect them to allow professionalism to prevail over the manner of covering issues.
Scholars have debated the role media can play in the electoral process saying, the media has three key roles in contributing to democratization and good governance. Media is a watchdog over the powerful thus promotes accountability, transparency and public scrutiny; as a civic forum for political debate, facilitates informed electoral choices and actions; and as an agenda-setter for policymakers, strengthens government responsiveness for instance to social problems and to exclusion.
Media can achieve such an impact, in the right circumstance, through their direct and indirect influence on a number of key parameters of governance: curbing corruption and improving accountability and transparency, enhancing informed participation in the political processes, and facilitating and reinforcing more equitable and inclusive policies and actions.
Hopefully, the related bodies including the electoral management body and Parliament will facilitate the much- needed preparations in the laws, boundary reviews and resources to enable a manageable search for leaders process through the elections.
While the election will provide Kenyans with the final opportunity to elect the leaders, the process, especially the campaigns and platforms the aspiring leaders will use to woo voters is very critical. Media must avoid the single-story narrative and allow diversity of voices in the stations.
Will the media help Kenyans make the right choices by shaping the process of searching for leaders through the election- by ensuring that we understand the political parties and candidates well- their manifestos and issues rather than their tribal backgrounds? Can the media radically change the shape of the campaign- by ensuring that Kenyans are told what they have a right to know rather than what they merely want to hear?
Like the BBI campaigns and the by-elections in Matungu, Kabuchai and Machakos are already showing, and as routine, media is focusing more on personalities more than on issues and substance.
The political party leaders are more pronounced and known to the voters more than the candidates themselves. Massive electoral malpractices including voter bribery, voter buying and allegations of use of public resources have been reported in the areas. Things like candidate debates have not been tried while a number of media houses do not have enough personnel on the ground.
Is the journalist’s role to tell the audience what they have a right to know- the critical information that will help them make life saving decisions or merely to tell them what they want to hear? Where is the role of investigative and interpretative journalism? Have journalists reduced themselves to spectators? What news values for example guides some editors when they choose to give ample airtime to politicians dancing during road shows and political rallies rather than showing the substance of the speeches.
Given that Kenya has one of the most free, independent, and pluralistic media in this part of the world, one prays that it will provide Kenyans the opportunity to know and interrogate candidates through allowing widest participation, access information on the parties and candidates among others.
We expect the media to be bold and tough on candidates in terms of what they stand for, what they have done in the past, what they promise to do through discussing the manifestos and experiences rather than merely which tribe they belong to or which coalition they plan to form.
The writer can be reached on victor@mediacouncil.or.ke
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