Tag: Reviews

Kenya’s Mainstream Media Once Again Misses The Big Point On Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg Nairobi Surprise Visit, Opts For Mediocrity

Mark Zuckerberg enjoying local dish of fish with ugali at local food joint, Mama Oliech

The Kenyan Mainstream Media has been criticised for none objectivity and over emphasising on irrelevant angles of stories for a real time, the ploy has once again played out in the latest visit of a prominent figure, Facebook’s Founder. The memory is still fresh in many people’s mind how the disjointed Kenyan media reported to the air visiting US pPresint of the U.S. Obama was breathing when he touched down in Nairobi previous year. His jet and security detail dominated the headlines compared to the core issues behind the visit.

Concentrating on sideshows inclines the public’s view, given the fact that majority of Kenyans consume their news via mainstream media and that they have the sole responsibility of setting the agenda, they ought to separate themselves from yellow journalism to being subjective and practice seriousness in the profession.

On his surprise tour of tech hubs in Africa, Mark Zuckerberg has made a pit stop in Nairobi. Announcing his arrival on Facebook, he described talking with entrepreneurs working out of the tech space, the iHub, and dining on ugali and tilapia with Kenya’s cabinet secretary for information and communications, Joe Mucheru. Announcing his core intent for the visit, Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page. “I’m here to meet with entrepreneurs and developers, and to learn about mobile money—where Kenya is the world leader.”

Headlines of Kenya’s mainstream media concentrating on the slideshows ;

Nairobi makes sense as Zuckerberg’s next stop. It is home to the world’s largest mobile money platform, M-Pesa, the crowdsourced disaster mapping platform Ushahidi and companies like M-Kopa, a solar company that sells power to the rural poor on credit, or Bridge International, a controversial for-profit school chain that the Facebook co-founder supports. Other Mobile Banking platforms running in Kenya includes Airtel Money, Orange Money.

Mobile money in Kenya, which allows mobile phone users to send or receive money, undergirds much of the country’s economy from banking and credit scoring to sports betting. For the first six months of this year, 1.59 trillion Kenyan shillings (about $20 million) flowed through mobile money platforms.

In nearly all leading Kenya’s mainstream outlets, they’ve emphasised on the sideshows of where the Billionaire digital entrepreneur was having his lunch his dressing code. While these are news material, they shouldn’t dominate headlines in serious journalism specs. The mainstream media is once again proving Juvenal in the line of duty. Sensationalism should be left to click baiting blogs and not the mainstream platform. Once again you’ve let us down.

September 2, 2016
Secret Meeting Reveals The Sh400M Racket Behind Nationwide School Fires

Education CS Fred Matiang’i

For the past weeks schools have been going up in flames with over 10,000 students sent home scored charged in courts for arson including teachers. Some students have been heavily punished, about 15 students who recently set ablazeLangata dormitories have been sent to Kamiti maximum prison where hardcore criminals are detained perhaps a move to send a severe warning to the rest.

As the cases of school fires continue to thrive one critical issue that has taken centre stage is as to who and what elements could be behind the fires. Several theories have been forthcoming including politics.

Initially, the fires started in Kisii the home ground of education CS Fredrick Matiang’i, and it was theorised that jealous local leaders wanted him out of the seat, and the fires would be used as a sign of discomfort and rebellion to his leadership in the education helm.

Another angle that was introduced came from KNUT officials that the strict and dictatorial policies that the CS introduced including overhauling the schools calendar and activities were to blame. KNUT Sec Gen Sossion is on record saying the students were unhappy and showed rejection to the stiff policies. KNUT has threatened to cease duty should the ministry go ahead with charging teachers for arson.

Talking of terrible policies, the CS has issued a warning that any school that burns it’s head teacher would automatically be demoted. This is a misinformed and exposing innocent teachers to victimisation. It doesn’t automatically mean the headteachers are part of the syndicate of anything an enemy would take advantage to sponsor a fire in individual school to have the headteacher demoted. That thought needs revision.

Ministry of education officials bundled themselves in a hotel in Naivasha on Monday for a secret crisis meeting with agenda of finding out the factors behind the fires. According to a mole speaking to Kenya Insights, the findings of the ministry’s investigations points fingers at the exams leaking cartel. The cartel is accurate on KCSE, which is just months away from starting.

The syndicate that includes KNEC officials, security officers, middlemen and teachers is said to be raking cool Sh400M annually on leaking the exams a menace that has dealt credibility blow to the exams council The KNEC’s New chairman and immediate former UoN VC Prof Magoha has promised to make this year’s exams leak proof and the cartel is scared to death with the reality of losing out on this year’s loot.

While theories continue to emerge more schools continue to go up in flames, an amicable solution should be up to salvage the education sector which is on fire.

July 27, 2016
Expert Analysis Exonerates Passaris Dress As Naughty Photographer Left In Trouble

The social media has been abuzz with the ‘exposing’ Esther Passaris’ dress, the former model who has maintained her beauty and fashion glamor through the years, was attending a beauty contest event where unfortunately she became a target of the naughty and unruly photographers who frequent social events to milk hens, hunting for controversial photos just to attract traffic to their blogs and social media profiles.

Who should hold the shame in this case where the gubernatorial aspirant was photographed in a supposed revealing dress making her the center of Internet trolling, is she the one to bare the shame or the photographer who took the picture and with photoshop advancements manipulated it into his twisted fantasies?

Fashion experts are now saying the shame is not on Passaris but the young photographer and all those who took pride in sharing the flawed pictures and trolled her. Photography goes beyond pressing the capture button, the new breed of photographers who don’t get the difference between taking photographs and photography are ruining the excellent course used in telling stories. We are looking at a breed of young photographers who with an HD camera, naked girls and an Instagram page think that they’re professionals given the likes and wows they get on their posted photos.

Passaris Poses at the event

A professional photographer in the case of Passaris’ dress knows that under normal light, no one in the room is exposed to her thighs which happen to be the photographer’s focus. It’s just in this particular photographers image and not any other despite the event being thronged by a battery of journalists. The man who took and shared the picture and used it in passing a misinformed and maligning judgment on Passaris can be likened to men who would cheer and take part in a ‘rape’ ordeal of a woman because it’s fun or the woman’s fault according to them. While the woman will be stumbling to cover her nakedness, they will strip her so to laugh some more. “If this is who you are. My shame is your shame. I cannot tell who committed a bigger crime.” Says Passaris on the controversial picture.

The real picture vs the manipulated photo

Lastly, this was a fashion show for crying out loud, while decency is key, there must be freedom for women to dress freely and express themselves, do we want to see Passaris and other women to dress in tents to satisfy the unenlightened mentality of the archaic conservatives? Even Michele Obama rocks such a similar dressing style, and people don’t peel off their nerves. We’ve come a long way in acceptance, and the mentality of judging a woman’s morals by how she dresses is not only backward but also a primitive. When trousers first came, and women started putting them on, they were called prostitutes, mini dresses they were called the same forgetting in the foredays women walked around in even more revealing traditional clothes if not butt naked. Some people need a brain OS update and accept the fact that we’ve advanced, and freedom of dressing should be maintained, I’m yet to hear of a case of a woman dictating how men should dress.

July 23, 2016