The presidential elections may have been held three weeks ago, but the newspapers in Kenya are still packed with election news. Newspaper The East African speaks of a ‘political rodeo’, with Vice President William Ruto coming out on top. Opposition leader Raila Odinga calls the election results “ridiculous” and went to the Supreme Court on Monday.
In all the consternation you would almost forget that Kenya still has a sitting president at the helm. Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been running Kenya since 2013, has withdrawn from his presidential residence and declined to speak to the press. He doesn’t seem to want to comment on the election results until the Supreme Court makes a ruling. Kenyatta’s silence seems indicative of his relationship with the Kenyan newscast, which has deteriorated sharply in recent years. Several newspapers take stock after nine years: what has Kenyatta meant for press freedom in Kenya?
Bromance
Journalists are initially hopeful when Uhuru Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto are elected president and vice president in 2013. According to The Standard Kenyatta and Ruto fought for a freer press during their campaign. The relationship between the two politicians, who appear in front of the cameras in matching clothes in the first years after taking office, has been described as the perfect bromance. Nestling next to each other, Kenyatta and Ruto give playful press conferences.
But the first crack in the good relationship between Kenyatta and the press comes in late 2013, after the bloody attacks on the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi, which left 68 people dead. After media reports that soldiers are looting shops while the attack is still ongoing, Kenyatta has had journalists from those media companies removed from parliament. Later, the president passes a law that introduces a code of ethics for journalists. A new government agency then decides that journalists have gone too far, imposing severe penalties.
government advertising agency
Four years later, Kenyatta and Ruto continue to curb Kenyan journalism by no longer advertising in critical newspapers from the state. The creation of the so-called ‘Government Advertising Agency’ means that Kenyan media will receive 30 percent less revenue from advertising revenues paid by the state. “It was a wrong move by the government,” says an official The Standard up. “The motive was clear: to muzzle the media companies.”
Previously, the advertising money was used by the government ‘as a weapon to manipulate the reporting’, writes The Conversation. But due to the lack of income, media companies were forced to reconsider their revenue model. Suddenly, media companies embraced their online channels The Standard. While there are also “keyboard terrorists” who spread fake news, the media coverage is wider than ever. “Nowadays almost all churches have a TV station,” said David Omwoyo, chief of the Kenyan media authority. ‘Muslims have their stations. There’s something for everyone.’
Meat
Meanwhile, the newspapers are happy to report about the crumbling bromance between Kenyatta and Ruto – for years the disagreement between the two can count on many front page stories. Gazeti ni ya kufunga nyamaPresident Kenyatta says when media first reported his alleged feud with Vice President William Ruto: ‘Newspapers are meant to wrap meat’.
Nevertheless, the newspapers appear to be correct: after years of disagreement between Ruto and Kenyatta, the latter makes a pact with opposition leader Odinga in 2018, which sidelines William Ruto. Ruto eventually decides to set up his own political movement, which turns out to be a golden move: according to the electoral commission, he won the elections three weeks ago.
Joost Bastmeijer is a correspondent in Nairobi.