Pluralist Media in Kenya: A critical view

Following the eruption of violent political clashes after the 2007 Kenyan presidential election, a commission set out to investigate underlying causes. The commission, led by Judge Phillip Waki, produced a report which apportioned part of the blame for the ethnically driven violence to Kenyan media (Waki 2008). This stirred debate among Kenya’s media practitioners, causing some self-criticism among journalists, which was echoed in responses that were given in the research for this chapter. However, the question of ethnic tension relayed in the media appears to be partly the problem of a partisan media, which impacts on journalism practice. The structure of the Kenyan media system appears to result in many media outlets becoming direct political instruments during election campaigns, when politicians appeal to ethnicity to win votes. By interviewing ordinary journalists and editors who work in print, TV and radio, the focus is on how they perceive their own practice within the structure....