Tony Mochama
When the political system throws a fence up around itself, the Press, like the people who lurk outside Parliament’s gates, has to peep long and hard to see what is going on inside.
By the time we find out what’s going on a la Goldenberg, Anglo Leasing and so on, it is often too late. The corrupt phantoms have vanished billions of shillings into thin air or fat Swiss/Cayman accounts, confident they will be vindicated by some presidential commission of inquiry or that a court will find the inquiry "acted beyond its mandate" — this a decade later.
If the Opposition was meant to act as a check to Government’s power after the repeal of the infamous Section 2A in 1992, then the deal signed outside Harambee House 16 years later to bring a Grand Coalition into existence left the Press as the solitary ‘opposition’, the common folk’s eyes, ears and voice. Division in government encourages disclosure, unity prevents it. A grand coalition, no Official Opposition and ‘principals’ hand-cuffed to each other at the apex of the pyramid of politics effectively leave the Press, alone, to disclose the shenanigans in Government.
The heterogeneous nature of this government means media must not be battered by retrogressive laws like the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill. Newspapers try extremely hard to stay in touch with the opinion of the common man. As a recent Info-Track poll showed, eight out of every nine people trust the media, while only four of every nine trust MPs.
Editors are guided by the mood of the public, not theirs. As George Canning once said: "The mighty power of public opinion, embodied in a free Press, pervades, checks and should govern the behaviour of the State."
Kenya’s Press is superior to any other in the region in writing style, radio wit, TV presentation. It would be a shame to stifle our freedom, as the Communication Bill seeks to do.
The author is a senior feature writer with The Standard.
