Writing stories in blood and tears in Kenya's dark days

By the time he passed away on April 26, 2008, Gichere was a pale shadow of the photojournalist he once was. [File, Standard] Scenes of bleeding journalists crawling out of smoking cars, coughing their lungs out under police fire evoke memories of the dark days when writing unflattering government stories provided an automatic ticket to hell, jail, or the hospital. Kenya's history is littered with anecdotes of journalists with broken bones and shattered hopes for penning stories or capturing images that were thought to be criticising the government. One of the most tragic attacks on a journalist was executed on the night of October 5, 1991, at a time the country was in the throes of second liberation. Officers crept up to a flat in Buru Buru phase 2 and knocked on door number 217. When they were ushered in by a photojournalist, Wallace Gichere, the nightmare began. They had gone to the house to arrest the journalist because he had written articles for the foreign press which portrayed the government in a bad light. The police tossed him out of the window, marking a descent for a man who had conquered the Himalayas. Although Gichere survived the fall from the fourth floor, he became paralysed from the waist down. The government admitted liability but was unwilling to compensate Gichere for wasting his life by condemning him to a wheelchair. When Attorney General Amos Wako was put to task by the then Juja MP, Stephen Ndichu, to explain why the government had refused to compensate Gichere he responded: "It is the considered view of this office that your quantification of the claim at Sh245.9 million plus damages plus interest is colossal and inordinately too high. Any counteroffer that we may put forward cannot be beyond seven figures..." Even though Ndichu pleaded with Wako to pay the journalist Sh9,999,999, being the highest seven-figure, the government still dilly-dallied, forcing Gichere to go on hunger strike on a number of occasions to pile pressure on the government. By the time he passed away on April 26, 2008, Gichere was a pale shadow of the photojournalist he once was. Although the multi-party democracy Gichere and his peers were fighting for has long been achieved, journalists in Kenya have continued to write about the country's struggles and oppression in tears and blood. The list of journalists who have paid the ultimate price in the line of duty can never be complete without Hos Maina, Antony Macharia, Dan Eldon, and Hansi Krauss who were stoned to death in Somalia by a mob angry with America's invasion of the troubled country. Media houses have been raided, and journalists such as William Munuhe and John Kituyi have been killed for daring to expose war criminals and perpetrators of genocide crimes. Scores have been jailed for speaking truth to power but journalists have remained unbowed.

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