Media crucial in marketing Kenya abroad

NAIROBI: Sometime in March last year Kenya’s diplomatic corps, attending the 17th Biennial Ambassadors and High Commissioners’ conference in Mombasa, bemoaned negative press reports and said this was frustrating their diplomatic initiatives in missions. The envoys noted that the local media’s fascination with “negative” narratives of insecurity, crime and corruption painted a bad image of the country abroad.   

Kenya’s Ambassador to the US Njeru Githae said: “We should not wash our dirty linen in public. Let us emulate other nations which, despite shortcomings, try to portray a beautiful image of their country. We are our own enemies. Telling the world of our security lapses does us no good.”