Kenyans Should Be Told who’s Who in the Media Too

Yea, the teller should be told on too. However, the big question is who will tell on the teller? That’s the most difficult part.

But it’s not only the Fourth Estate that should open up, it would be better, much better if other private organisations-especially those operating across the country- are surgically reviewed and their employee composition published. Every Kimani, Kipkurui, and Kamlesh would certainly by happy to be in the know of such centurion secrets.   

For a long-time, the civil service has been a centre of attraction for researchers interested in revealing tribal imbalances in the department.

The Kenyan civil service is mostly ruled by “two communities-Kikuyu and Kalenjin” according to the latest statistics. That should not be shocking news to most Kenyans who have always been fed with beliefs that the big man at State House is in every way a job-maker for the community he comes from. Those beliefs have since independence been buttressed by increased appointments of people from the same tribe as the president. Not so many people need lots of seconds to remember that during President Moi’s time, Kalenjin packed every institution like Safari ants on top of a meal. Those people would certainly not like the monotony of being reminded that during Kibaki’s regime Kikuyu have flown up and high in the civil service appointment bracket. Such facts are with Kenyans and have accepted to live with it. For a difference, it’s high time other institutions playing a major role in the daily lives are opened up too so that Kenyans can have fresh info, either get used to it or reject it.

Those leading banks milking Kenyans’ earnings with wanton hunger, those national media houses, those private colleges bragging of indiscriminate service to Kenyans, and those private institutions with their feet in every corner of this country. Kenyans deserve to be told the kind of people they have-their academic qualifications, tribe, gender, race and anything as appertains to 21^st century employment considerations and more importantly in consideration to the supreme law of Kenyan land: the Constitution.

The media-the most trusted institution in Kenya the last time I checked-should in due respect of the constitution come out clear on the range of their employment radar.  Article 35 (1) (b) of the constitution says “every citizen has the right of access to information held by another person and required for the exercise or protection of any right or fundamental freedom.” It’s just that and by the spirit of this article, the media houses-mostly the national ones- being the shapers of a huge section of Kenyans’ lifestyles through their daily content should be free to tell their audience what sort of people they have.

Just like the way kind of men and women in the civil service has been put on the spotlight overtime, the Fourth Estate ought to take that moral step and let Kenyans get similar info of them from them.

Moral Lesson: Article 35 (1) (b) of the constitution says “every citizen has the right of access to information held by another person and required for the exercise or protection of any right or fundamental freedom.”