The one o’clock news, on KBC radio, was once a must-listen. Never mind there were seven other news bulletins.
It was mostly during the one o’clock news that Kenyans got to know: One, where the president was; two, who he had sacked in a terse statement from the Presidential Press; three, which big shot had ‘bit cotton’; four, the government policy on anything over and under the sun; five was any other local or international kasheshe.
Like that October, 1989, when America invaded Panama, arrested President Manuel Noriega, before committing ‘Pineapple Face’ to 40 years in a Miami slammer. Kenyans heard that on the one o’clock news.
Today, radio news bulletins come a dime a dozen and at the top of every hour. And even before radio issues the official position on any breaking news item, Kenyans on Twitter, Facebook, bloggers and media websites would have already have had their versions.
Even the Kenya Red Cross Twitter handle breaks more news than most battle-hardened reporters!
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But back in the day, KBC’s “hii ni taarifa ya habari...” got Kenyans glued to the radio to listen to the assured baritone timbre of Leonard Mambo Mbotela or Ken Walibora in the General Service.
Agao Patrobas and Elizabeth Omollo held fort with the English Service. Missing the one o’clock news translated to groping in the dark on the goings on in any corner of taifa tukufu. But the bulletins were more important, more painful to nabobs in government.
Retired President Mwai Kibaki was demoted from Veep to Minister for Health over the radio in March 1988, while another Veep, the late Prof George Saitoti walked out of a hotel meeting only to find his driver plucking the pennant from his car after news of his replacement were broken over the one o’clock news in August 2002.
