Channel 4 a UK TV station released a documentary called Kenya's Human Time bomb.
The documentary showed a chilling side of the post election violence that would leave even Kenyans surprised.
Channel 4 is known for stirring controversy and blowing situations out of proportion.In 2007 the channel aired a documentary called undercover mosque.Which basically said that UK's Muslims were fanning violence,racism segregation and supported terrorist activities.Police claimed that the programmed had misrepresented the views of Muslim preachers and clerics by misleading editing.
This time channel 4's target was Kenya.And the programme could not come at a worse time when the two opposing leaders in the election fiasco had signed a historic peace deal,and a grand coalition government formed.Just when tourism numbers had started picking up and the economy was back on track,the producers had to go ahead and totally misrepresent the political situation in Kenya.
The documentary focused on the Mt Elgon conflict between the government forces and a miltia calling itself the Saboat Land Defences Forces.AS i type this,the presence of the SLDF has been largely wiped out in mt Elgon area.Many of the soldiers having fled deep into the jungle.The Kenyan armed forces have setup a permanent base in the area,with helicopter patrols,tanks and land troops continually patrolling the area.Calm has returned to the area,though there are a few more displaced people.
The problem with the documentary is,they portrayed the SDLF as a militia which is about to take over the country.
They did not mention the massive security operation that has virtually wiped out 80% of the presence of the SDLF forces in the area.With most of them having fled to neighboring Uganda.And some to
Tranzoia district.
The documentary insinuated that Kenya is not stable and the militia could drive Kenya to a civil war!
I am sure over 90% of Kenyans would tell you that they have never seen an SDLF militia apart from hearing or seeing in the media.
The reporter who sadly has lived in Kenya most of his life(as he said so in the documentary) visited Internally displaced people and concluded that the reasons for the post-election violence was overpopulation.
Again no mention of illegally allocated Land which was the driving force for the bitterness that pit tribes against each other.
He did not stop there,he went to visit burn victims in Kitale District hospital and interviewed survivors of the recent clashes caused by the SDLF miltia.The crammed hospitals and children with 1st and 2nd degree burns were splashed on the screen for the world to see what type of country Kenya is.
At the end of the report the conclusion was rather unsettling "Kenya is still on the grip of wide spread unrest,without urgent measures,one of Africa's great hopes will become yet another failed state."
Its this kind of one-sided reporting that has made the image of African countries shattered and drove away potential investors and tourists.
One only needs to take a flight to Kenya to see that Kenya is nowhere close to being a failed state.There is peace and calm.The government is working,The economy is functioning and tourists are streaming back to its lovely reserves and beaches.
NB: If you want to watch the documentary leave a comment or send me an email on ernestombayo@yahoo.com
and i will post a link to the documentary.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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4 comments:
i watched the documentary. i think u are being defensive ona couple of issues. though i think some scense the sdlf one were somewehat staged. th point of the documentary was about.
-population and ecology and conflict
kenya has a population bomb and the politicains are ignoring land reform will not solve it despite what the politicians say . take the family of teh man who had just died with 27 acres and a couple of hundred grandkids - how iwll lad reform help them ?
- The leader of the sabaot had a point. that tribes are arming themselves with population since numbers thru tribe is the only way to power.
- This is what the sabaot and communities like the illchamus and other marginialized populations are discovering. in the past this groups did ntfeature in the population numbers but now are significant and are demanding there ancestral land and rights.
-History repeats itslef mau mau was subsantially about population and ecology too.
Actually, I agree with the article. Foreign states and media always rub their hands with glee and wish for african states to fail. They cannot wait for it to happen, and use any opportunity to fan the flames, or stoke world hatred for the country, i.e failed trade. I remember during the election clashes, Murdoch-Brown even went to national UK media to keep fanning the fire saying things like " there is great animosity/they want to kill each other" and he almost seemed to smile - actually I think he did - in a gleeful kind of evil way of someone that really wanted that to happen. British people never got over loosing Kenya as a colony and will always be interfering and doing stupid things like making these stupid wide-eyed documentaries or comments in order to retaliate in a way, or lead to the anarchy they so desire, when they have bigger problems in their own lands that they should be busy working on.And worse, some Africans, weaned on that diet of foreign biased media, agree with them. We are nowhere near close to the gargantuan population of Britain, yet Britain as a country is enclosed in a a waaay smaller area of land(thus ran about conquering) and thy should be focused on that instead of living in this typical "others are wrong, we are always right" God-complex type of thing they have as Europeans.It is hateful and racist, and it is time OUR media went large and countered this bias, the way Al-Jazeera did.
It will never happen with European racist/biased media.
Wise African.
United Nations World Populations Data shows that Kenya population density:59 people per square Km
UK population Density: 246 people per square KM. Me thinks others have bigger problems that we do. The problem with Africa and Kenya is not population, it is mismanagement and lack of control do resource our problem. This overpopulation argument is too simplistic. The Sabaot are not fighting for land because they are many, it is because they feel they have been short changed it what they believe is their ancestral land and because there isn't enough to go around. But on the reporters story, you can not blame them, they have to make a living and nothing sales like a good 'dark continent' Conrad type story. We need to start telling our own stories, it is our responsiblity, not theirs.
i strongly think that the motives of the producers of the documnetary was to get a juicy story.rather than present the true picture on the ground.you should ask yourself what the average UK citizen will think after watching the documentary.Kenya's image in the documentary was akin to what sudan or Somalia is normally perceived.
The rest of the country is peaceful.i think the tv station should be ashamed for such shoddy reporting.
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