Under the patronage of a combination of bad governance, terrible politics and shocking neglect, Kenya became hell on earth following the desputed Decemebr 27 presidential polls.
The country broke records. In a space of thirty days, up to one thousand five hundred men, women and children were murdered. The killing as followed, immediately by another three hundred and fifty thousands people being uprooted from their house, making it yet another biggest humaniterian crisis in Kenya.
In the thick of all this, l witnessed how the media promoted tribal chauvinism and undermined national unity by editing messages of hate that were aired on radio stations and on the print media. Long before the elections were held, vernacular radio stations had ignited ethnic consciousness among the listeners making them support leaders from their own tribe and harbour bad feelings about people from other communities who were targets of hate speech.
Reminisent of the notorious TRLM in Rwanda, the media in Kenya is partly to blame for the post-election bloodshed in Kenya. There are worrying echoes of a planned genocide being incited by local radio stations that urged to "arm themselves" aganist their enemies.
Kenya has been convulsed by bloodshed since 1992, which has claimed more than 4,500 lives and estimated 20,000 people live temporarily makeshifts.
The December 27 post-election violence was not a new happening to me as a journalist from my previous understanding and experience that goes back in the early 1990s when the worst episodes of politically instigated ethnic cleansing were witnessed in 1992 and 1998 during the reign of former despotic ruler Daniel arap Moi.
Many people were murdered with machetes and some victims were assaulted with arrows. Often, in the dead of the night, victims were corralled by mobs to forlorn structures where they were executed and buried in full view of the security personnel who were inept and politically compromised.
In the December 27 violence, both the police and militias commited serious human rights violations, the police account for more than 300 deaths while armed militia carried out well planned attacks in some areas, youths belonging to the ruling party were transported under police escort to cause violence in areas that were considered to be PNU’s strong holds.
In one egregious act of cruelty, l witnessed the pro-Kibaki militia commonly known as the Mungiki as they burnt a family of 15 in the town of Naivasha while in Eldoret, a physically challenged elderly woman in a wheelchair had been burnt beyond recognition alongside 34 of her tribal compatriots when youths belonging to the opposition Ornage Democratic Movement (ODM) atacked a church building.
The worst incident that will refuse to get out of my mind is the incident where a Catholic priest was condemned to death by stoning. As a journalist who can you do if you witness someone being led to his slaughter and asks for your help?
The truth of the matter is that Kenya will never the same again despite the current reconcilatory efforts amd messages being spread across the country unless historical injustices are addressed. Proponents of a truth, justice and reconciliation commission have argued that the violence that officially claimed 1,500 lives and displaced tens of thousands of people from their homeland in December 2007 may have been avoided had the government cared to deal with the questions of inequality and historical injustices that have divided Kenyans along ethnic lines.
It imperative to note that even during Moi’s tenure, the country witnessed state institutionalized ethnic division and a high sense of tribal xenophobia pitying the ethnic Kalenjin community aganist the Kikuyu. When in 2000, the elite GEMA community defended their quest for unity of purpose, then President Daniel Moi accused the community of abusing the freedom of speech to ignite ethnic division. The Kikuyu elite had sought to defend the existence of a vernacular FM radio stations arguing that it was meant to unity the community and call for harmony with other communities. Moi however went ahead and banned all venecular FM radio stations forcing him to temporarily suspend the broadcast license for Royal Media Service owned by S.K Machari whom Moi accused of using his media to campaign for the opposition.
Despite efforts to criminalize venecular broadcast in Kenya, proponents of the freedom of the press urged that vernacular is part of the Kenyan cultural and there is nothing we can do about it. In 1996 the government acceded to licensing of independent broadcast stations, the tendency to broadcast in vernacular was adopted and in 2000 the government went ahead to license Kenya’s first vernacular language FM radio station. This however did not go well with Moi who accused Kameme FM of inciting ethnic hate and propagating genocide.
Its the decision by the government to launch a state run venecular FM station, Inooro, that took everybody by surprise. The station which todate broadcasts in the Kikuyu language enjoys a huge following, at least 23% of the entire 34 million populace that cuts across 43 disparate communities the Kikuyu tribe is numerically the country’s largest ethnic community. Today almost all 43 ethnic groups in Kenya have attachments to particular vernacular FM stations.
In another move of ethnic chauvinism that was being played by the media was evident in 2005 when the government temporarily switch off air KASS FM, a vernacular radio station broadcasting in the Kalenjin dialect accusing it of allegedly inciting its listeners to violence days before a historic referendum on the Constitution.
Human rights organizations led by the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), published a report titled, "Still Behaving Badly." In which the KNCHR documented human rights abuses in the lead up to the December 27 elections. Emerging on the top of the list of inveterate performers were vernacular FM stations. Regarding these stations, the report stated that the "use of unsavory language continues unabatedly."
At least four FM stations, broadcasting in the Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Luo dialect, were the most insidious. They included the Kalenjin language station, KASS, both the Kikuyu stations, Inooro and Kameme and the Luo station, notably Lake Victoria, FM stations and Ramogi FM.
The Kikuyu stations: "Both Kameme and Inooro FM radio stations played songs that talked very badly about ‘beasts from the west,’ a veiled reference to opposition leader Raila Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) colleagues who hailed from the western part of Kenya."
It was astonishing to witness fellow journalists refuse to attend media conferences called by leaders from communities that they did not support. The media owners were also torn along political and ethnic lines even to an extend where they allowed to publish hate speech as paid-up advertisments in their newspapers and in broadcast stations.
The ethnic hate and political division that the media propagated was so unbelievable. Journalists encouraged their readers and callers to unleaseh their vile and laughed about it with impunity ecouraging communities that had co-existed for over 45 years to raise aganis each other. Neighbours rised aganist neighbours, husbands were forced to turn aganist their families and the entire community was condemned to senseless killings as the media thrived in profits.
