Friends of ODM-Kenya in the Media

Nothing exposed Kenyan journalism's lack of impartiality more than the coverage of the aborted ODM leaders’ trip to London for reconciliation. When the announcement was made by some top party officials at the beginning of March, The Standard treated it as a page one splash with a sympathetic headline “Operation Save ODM-K”. The paper pushed the first anniversary of the barbaric raid to its offices by John Michuki’s hooded hooligans to the second place on the same page.

The splash story by Dennis Onyango and Ayub Saluva described the trip to London as a “bonding and peace making retreat”. Not a word was said in the story about Bishop Gilbert Deya financing the trip. All that the paper said was that the “sojourn to the distant land (was) organized by ODM-Kenya sympathizers in the Diaspora, (as) part of a series of measures crafted to defuse the rising internal tension and fears that the ambitions of those fighting for its ticket could burst the Orange.”[1]

Though its proprietor, William Ruto, was denied a visa to the UK as a suspected corrupt politician, the Saturday Times of March 3 glorified the trip to London as a mission of hope where warring party presidential candidates “would stay in one hotel as assign of unity and trust as well as bonding among themselves.”[2] The writer of the Times story, Philip Mulee, either due to ignorance or lack of initiative, never said a word about the possibility of the disgraced Bishop Deya’s hand behind the entire trip.

The only journalist who was courageous enough to look at the whole drama in a professionally critical manner was Sunday Nation’s Gitau Warigi who hit the nail on the head when he called the trip to London “laughable”. In his Sunday View column he said: “Have you ever heard anything as laughable as people going to a foreign city to try and mend fences? When you face a problem, you sit down where that problem is and thrash it out. If it is land dispute in Mathare, it is ridiculous to travel to Congo to discuss it there. Even as ODM honchos go to London ostensibly to ‘bond’, plus doing a little shopping and carousing on the side, one has to be pretty daft to expect that the deepening rot in the Orange can be wished away.”[3]

Warigi’s courage singles him out as the only writer with the ability to point out anything unpalatable to the ODM leadership. But alas, even he did not seem to have a clue about the funds financing the trip to London. It was not until March 9th when David Mugonyi of the Daily Nation told the country that the trip to the British capital aborted because some of the leaders “learnt that Pastor Gilbert Deya was one of (its) organizers.” He explained that the pastor came to “fame” during the miracle babies’ saga and that he was wanted by the police in Kenya.

Despite being quite an eye opener Mugonyi’s story was only published after Kalonzo Musyoka and Uhuru Kenyatta pulled out of the trip.[4] It was therefore not an exposé as such.

If Bishop Deya financed the whole trip to London not many Kenyan journalists were too eager to expose that fact. All that Philip Mulee of the Kenya Times could say, for example, was that “officially” Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto and Dr. Julia Ojiambo rejected the trip “complaining it had been hijacked by some unnamed group with the ulterior motive of allegedly painting the party in bad light.”[5] He made no effort to reveal the names of the people accused. What their motive was did not concern the journalist at all. This is despite the fact that Mulee’s splash story was supposed to expose why the UK trip aborted!

As a matter of fact it was not until in the 15th paragraph that Mulee told his readers about the involvement of Bishop Deya in the organization of the trip and the possibility of his being responsible for its failure. He said : “ It also emerged last evening that one of those said to be sponsoring the trip is Bishop Gilbert Deya of Gilbert Deya Missionaries who has in recent years received stinking publicity relating to the ‘scandal’ of miracle babies . This development is understood to have put off other ODM-K presidential hopefuls who did not want to be associated with the controversial bishop wanted in Kenya to stand trial for illegally kidnapping babies.”

Any first year undergraduate student who has mastered his news values and the inverted pyramid form of story presentation would easily tell you that that should have been Mulee’s intro. A senior journalism student would have insisted that the Deya original story should have been an award wining exposé instead of an appendix of a story from police files.

Despite the rotten skeletons in the ODM cupboard, some journalists were still trying to paint a picture of unity in the party that could not send a united team to London. In the Saturday Times story of March 10, Benson Amollo and Bernard Onyari were telling the people of Kenya that ODM-K leadership embarked on damage control measures in the face of an aborted UK trip, with the party’s top guns “ putting on a brave face and for the umpteenth time restating their unity.” The two went as far as quoting a Mr. George Muruli from London who denied what they called “claims that discredited Archbishop Gilbert Deya of the miracle babies’ saga was part of the organizing committee which invited the leaders to London.[6] On the same day the Saturday Standard published a story from Ben Agina in London and Standard team in Nairobi now quoting ODM leaders distancing themselves from claiming “ they pulled out of (the trip to London) on learning that the UK based controversial cleric , Archbishop Gilbert Deya, of baby making scandal, was involved in the planning of the excursion .

After interviewing Raila in London, Agina filed a story quoting the politician denying Deya’s involvement, “particularly claims that he paid 10,000 British pounds for the upkeep of ODM politicians in London. But he quoted the ODM –UK Publicity Secretary George Muruli saying Deya as a Kenyan in UK was “free to participate in these crucial functions that bring ODM –Kenya leaders together.”[7]

May be the journalist who dug deeper into the ODM story than anyone else was Bernard Namunane of the Nation. He exposed for the first time that there was “deep seated suspicion, personality clashes and mistrusts among some ODM-K leaders.” In a story published on the March 10th edition of the Sunday Nation Namunane touched a nerve when he exposed that “there were allegations that some politicians allied to a certain presidential hopeful were giving tips to the news media about unfavorable stories regarding rival camps.”[8]

This is the first time “tips” between journalists and politicians have been mention in actual print instead of through spoken words usually in whispers. What the real “tips” were on and in what form Namunane never revealed. As the journalists in the mainstream media were beating about the bush on the real reason for the cancellation of the London trip by some of the most powerful ODM presidential candidates, The Weekly Citizen of March 12-18 quoted Najib Balala openly saying: “Deya is an access baggage that should not be allowed into ODM Kenya”. The story revealed that Deya had offered to the party the latest range of Mercedes Benz and Land Rovers to the dignitaries who agreed to go to London for the ODM meeting.

The paper boldly said: “Deya, a fellow Lou like Raila, appears to be working overnight to ensure his tribesman from Siaya becomes the next tenant at State House.” [9]

These few examples help to illustrate how the media in Kenya took one incident to report the 2007 electoral process at its early stages. It shows an open bias in favour of ODM even when there were obvious cracks on the party’s walls. Like in many election campaigns in the world there were many unsubstantiated statements regarding the cancelled trip by top ODM leaders. Despite the publicity mileage the event got in both the print and electronic media, it was in the print media where the issue was treated in the most prolific manner but very strangely without digging deep into the substance of the matter.

The majority of the published stories appeared to be the result of spoon-fed mash rather than the result of investigative journalism. The weakness was most noticeable in the lack of effort to establish the accuracy of what the politicians said and what made them say whatever they said when they were either boycotting the trip to London or backing it.

Examining the presentation of stories concerning the London trip controversy brought into my mind the coverage of the 2000American presidential election on the internat. At that time journalists engaged in lively debates about a number of issues but their debates were as confusing as they were wide in their variety of subjects. The trip to London was without a doubt the beginning of the 2007 elections but the manner the journalists handled it was confusing as some of them were doubtlessly protecting ODM from being tarnished by Bishop Deya’s involvement in the planning and financing the trip.

According to Barb Palser, the Director of Digital Media for McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Co. the thrilling debates by journalists during the 200 American presidential elections showed that the internet had the potential to make debates and campaigns much more substantive. He says the election debate on the internet in 2000 also had the potential to paralyze, confuse and overwhelm.[10] Whereas the trip to London debate and opinionated coverage in the Kenyan print media was overwhelming, it was also certainly confusing. May be that was so because the Kenyan journalists failed to realize the potential to make the trip-to-London debate more substantive.


[1] Onyango, Dennis and Savula, Ayub. “Operation Save ODM-K” in Saturday Standard No.061 of March 3, 2007.
[2] Mulee, Philip. “ODM-K Top Guns for London Mediation in the Saturday Times No.341955 of March 3, 2007.
[3] Warigi, Gitau. “Conflicting Ambitions are ODM Leaders’ Key Challenge” in Sunday Nation No. 15370 of March 4, 2007.
[4] Mugonyi, David. “Kalonzo and Uhuru Skip Bonding Trip” in the Daily Nation No.15375 of March 9, 2007.
[5] Mulee, Philip. “Why UK Trip Aborted” in Kenya Times No.341960 of March 9, 2007.
[6] Amollo, Benson and Anyari, Bernard. “UK trip Jigsaw Puzzle” Saturday Times No. 341061 of March 10th , 2007.
[7] Agine, Ben. “ODM- Kenya in Denial” in Saturday Standard No. 062 of March 10, 2007
[8] Namunane, Barnard. “The Real Problem in ODM in Saturday Nation No. 15376 of March 10th 2007.
[9] Citizen Team. “Assassination Fear Grips Top) DM-K Men” in Weekly Citizen Volume 10 issue No 13 of March 12-18 2007.
[10] Palster, Barb. “ You want Politics, You Got It” in American Journalism Review, December 200 issue.