TV, radio presenters are 'murdering' Kiswahili

By SWALEH MDOE

It's important to note that with its recognition as both the national and official language in the new Constitution, Kiswahili has taken a big stride in our social and political  lives in recent years.

 We encounter Kiswahili words in our everyday interactions; on mass media - radio, television, and newspapers.

Tell me if there is any FM presenter, no matter how familiar they are with the English language, who does not spice up their presentations with broken Kiswahili? Who would have dreamed of having Kiswahili-only successful radio stations today in Kenya? But we have Radio Maisha, Milele FM, Radio Umoja, Radio Citizen and many others. These were set up due to the large growing number of Kiswahili listeners.

Even local television stations took a cue from this new trend by producing English programmes that have Swahili names, in which the programmes headers/names are Swahili, but the characters use a mixture of English and Kiswahili, thanks to the rapid growth of Kiswahili language. And almost all the local TV programmes  and commercial advertisements have taken up this trend in which characters use both languages.

 They include Bambika na Tusker, Lipua Mamilioni, Kwachu Mamilii, Zawadi 2929, Bonga, Sambaza , Okoa Jahazi, Skiza (of Safaricom). Almost every advert comes laced with Kiswahili, because it is the language for the mass market and that is the targeted audience. The group of Kenyans who buy airtime from as low as Sh5, M-pesa and ZAP to each other also buy  Blueband ya Kadogoo. Publishers too have followed this new emerging trend and give their English magazines Kiswahili names, such as Sokoni, Twende, and Tupike.

Available records show that about 45 per cent of 39 million Kenyans speak Kiswahili, 33 per cent speak a smattering of English and the rest (22 per cent) speak their mother tongues, with about 150 million Swahili speakers worldwide. In Tanzania, 90 per cent of its population speak the language, which has been used politically to unite and create harmony.

The influence of Kiswahili has penetrated even our political life. Kiswahili is used by politicians when they want to reach to the voters. During political campaigns and rallies, politicians will pass their messages in Kiswahili rather than English, no matter how much they know the Queen’s language.

However, some television and radio presenters are taking the language too casually  and misusing it in their presentations, thus misleading viewers and listeners. For example, there is a big difference between Dhamana and Thamani; the former means surety and the latter value. There is also a difference between Adhiri and Athiri; while the former means humiliate, the later means affect.

We must  strive to learn Kiswahili and excel. Ask yourself how come we have Chinese speaking fluent Kiswahili in Kenya today? Look at how broad Kiswahili has grown that  since 1980 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has been using Kiswahili as one of its official languages.

The African Union uses it as its working languages and  even the world’s institutions such as the largest ICT maker in the world, Microsoft, has created a link for Kiswahili users to respond to the Swahili growing prominence.

Why should we be left behind? 

The writer is a broadcast journalist in Nairobi.