How political elite and scholars subvert national cohesion

When faced with a national issue, it is a common citizenry behaviour to lend ears to opinion leaders. In Kenya, this club is composed of scholars, political and religious leaders. The mass media provide a platform for them to give their views and solutions. Many a time, this coveted opportunity has been abused and used only to fan the fire at the expense of providing meaningful solutions.

Philosophers have for a long time described the power of the spoken word; by it nations have been built through persuasion of legendary leaders for a common cause. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used it to plant and water hope in the hearts of Americans during the great depression and war through his fire-side radio talks. America pulled through and emerged as a strong nation, a superpower. This earned Roosevelt a place among the greatest US statesmen together with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. The success of his fire-side radio chats breathed life into the hypodermic needle theory of mass media.  In the same breath, it must be pointed out that countries have been set on fire through the spoken word in the mass media; no need to mention Kenya’s post-election violence of 2007/8 and the Rwandan genocide.