KaruaIt is repugnant that our local press is enjoying trashing and putting local our politicians in a bad light at every opportune time they get. Even if the stories reported are erroneous, misleading and false. Our journalists, editors and columnists like to praise foreigners more than they would their own compatriots. Look at the manner in which Nairobi based diplomats are being revered as if they are angels.
When Edward Clay was the United Kindom’s High Commissioner in Nairobi, he used to receive press coverage even when he attended a children Christmas party as Santa Claus and got front page coverage! Many a times we have read biographies and accomplishments of foreign dignitaries, recent ones being that of Graca Machel, and Oluyemi Adeniji. But when it comes to local politicians it is completely a different ball game.
Take the recent case of the Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, Martha Karua, for instance. “The Swiss deny minister visa to travel to Geneva” went the eye catching news story. The way the story was written gave the unsuspecting public an impression of who that Minister was without mentioning the individual’s name. I understand one local TV channel made it very clear who it was also without mentioning the name.
They were pointing fingers to Ms Martha Karua was alleging that she was denied visa to visit Geneva, Switzerland where she was set to travel to on official Government duties leading the country’s delegation to a UN human right conference event. It has come to light that the news story was not only misleading and untrue, but was conceivably intentionally published to malign and put her on a bad light; perhaps because of her stand in the mediation talks.
Had the no nonsense Karua not come out and called a press conference where she displayed her “visa stamped passport” to the public, the impression in the people minds would have lasted forever that she has been embarrassed by the Swiss embassy in Nairobi. I abhor the cheap shot acts of the media houses aimed at our politicians from any side of the political divide.
The story left many reasonable thinking people wondering as to how possible such a misleading report by two leading media houses (not this paper) got published in the first place. What was the rationale in publishing the story? what was it is supposed to achieve? That “news item” must have passed across several individuals before it got published on the front pages of the newspapers. It is a pity that none of these individuals checked the facts.
Take it further, none of these editors are aware of the fact that any country which is a host of UN agencies cannot deny visas to government officials who are on official duties with the UN. That is even if they don’t agree with them or are not friendly to those countries where the officials are coming from. A case in point was when the President of Iran travelled to the USA last year, visiting New York City to attend the UN General Assembly conference.
Everyone knows that if given a choice the US government would never approve visa for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit USA. Therefore if it were true that Karua was denied visa, the headlines needed to have condemn the denial and not rejoice in trashing her.
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Story by Omar Ali
Sunday Times, 9 March 2008
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