What Offending Article Did Impounded Issue Carry?
On Monday this week Kenyan police raided the offices of the Weekly Citizen newspaper and arrested 13 employees. The latest issue of the weekly was also confisticated from several vendors who were also arrested. Police said they were acting on orders ‘from above’.
According to sources close to newspaper vendors who had already started selling the offending Weekly Citizen issue, the main splash of the paper this week was:
Wambui calling the shots as questions linger on Kibaki’s health.
Although the President’s second wife, Wambui has always been a thorn in the flesh of this administration, my analysis of the situation is that the Weekly Citizen has landed in trouble for several stories they have carried that have been very critical of Kibaki, personally, rather than this one story. For instance some weeks back the political weekly claimed that President Kibaki’s foreign and Swiss accounts were being investigated by the World Bank. A rather wild and sensational headline aimed at selling copies of the paper rather than getting to the truth of the matter. And the sort of headline that must have deeply offended the President.
Who Owns The Weekly Citizen?
The Weekly Citizen started out as a notorious A4 size 8 page newsletter edited by a Moi University Political Science graduate Tom Oscar Alwaka, who had previously been employed by one of the 8-page A4 pioneer alternative press publications in this category, the Weekly Dispatch.
It seems that he was able to attract a major financer in a well know politician in the current parliament whose identify has always been shrouded in mystery. Many people believe that it is GG Kariuki the MP for Laikipia West.
The Weekly Citizen was transformed into a tabloid size newspaper with the injection of funds from the new mystery shareholder. The paper has however missed many chances to transform itself into a serious weekly to fill the unfilled void of an independent political analysis weekly. Alwaka has always blocked this possibility for reasons that are not clear and the weekly has remained a sensational-screaming-headline-rumour-mongering political weekly. Its’ popularity has however continued to grow, especially in Nairobi and the Western parts of the country where Alwaka himself hails from.
If circulation figures were falling, then the Kibaki administration has just handed the weekly a lifeline as all attention will now turn to the newspaper as Kenyans seek to find out what exactly it has written about that has irked the Kibaki administration so much
I like the weekly citizen and buy it every week. It is the only tabloid that has consistently published every week for the last 4 years with few exceptions. The others - "weekly dispatch", "independent", "kenya confidential", "patriot", "westerner", and the guardian (funded for and disapeared since the referendum) - have had either erratic printing schedules, very sensational headlines with little story, or don't publish unless they have a screaming story.
ReplyDeleteI want to comment on what one weekly citizen newspaper splashed in its heading to us on monday 3rd 09 2007.EQUITY BANK COLLAPSING,Was this true or fiction,if later which I believe it is I feel sad to know what harm it can do to this kenyan bank amidst the market competition its facing from other banks.Its unfair and should be condemed by all kenyans who know what this bank has done to kenyans by bringing banking to their doorstep,Citizen editor I wish you would grow up in the way you handle sensitive news,I wish the goverment would protect kenyan company from this kind of glutton editors;
ReplyDeleteAllow me to raise a few important things that all of us need to know, ask ourselves or respond to. By the way, the newspaper splashed is intended to cause people to panic and hence pull out of the bank, the bank collapses and the people who originated with it begin saying...we told you.
On another note, there is such fear and apprehension doing the rounds in Kenya, you remember the email and sms rumor that the US had said a big earthquake was coming?? Lets not allow ourselves to live in such a way!! Now for some facts
1. Its important to realize that Equity Bank has not just sprung up into existence, its been around since 1984 when it was founded and has grown from then. Its easy for people to talk as though the bank started the other day.....lets realize it has a history. The bank was started by the Chairman, Peter Munga in a small little shack in the back woods of Muranga, a place called Kiriaini. The CEO is an employee and can be sacked or replaced, the success of the bank is dependent on the vision, hardwork and effort of the Founder and Chairman.
2. I talked with a stockbroker a few minutes ago and was told that the reason the bank's shares have been doing as well as they are is because the people who owned millions of shares before Equity was allowed to list on the stock exchange were not allowed to sell off their shares until after three years, the scenario therefore is that there are a lot of shares held by a small number of individuals and cannot sell them and the little shares available are in high demand. Any product whose demand is higher than supply, the price goes up. Thats simple economic logic.
3. There are no government women funds being channeled through Equity, the funds being channeled from their are from the United Nations in recognition of the effort of the bank and its success in micro-finance lending. I don't know about you but the UN does its homework well and I can assure you they would not have touched the bank if it had issues, forget somebody writing and saying that they are a cashier their.....I can generate any email and claim to work for the bank or any other institution for that matter. Just do a check on the internet about fraudulent emails and you will realize what I mean.
4. Remember the email that did the rounds last year about Pesapoint ATMs having fake money... it was claimed to come from a US embassy official incharge of security and fraud, caused alot of panic, people stopped using pesapoint whereas it was all fake. The intention was to affect the business of pesapoint, stop their growth at the benefit of who?? the big banks. I see the same trend in the mail doing the rounds about Equity. Pesapoint was affected badly, they slowed down putting up ATMs and its only now that they are beginning to wake up.
Ask yourself, if Equity was not doing so well, why are the big banks, Stanchart, Barclays etc trying to outdo it? Why are they opening branches in Gikomba, and all the little places they never went to before, why are they hawking there products on the streets? You only respond to genuine threats and seek to outdo real competition.
5. Who said local is bad, it amazes me how we Kenyans have all the negative thinks to say about anything Kenyan, local, indigenous etc and all the praise for the Multi nationals. We need to realize that the board of Equity is made up of people who are very succesful in their own rights, people who are actually running other very succesful corporates, Linus Gitahi is the CEO Nation Media Group, Julius Kipng'etich is the KWS director, Benson Wairegi is the Managing Director/ CEO of British American Insurance.
Tell me, you mean such respectable men would allow their names, reputations and their organizations to be brought down by them not being keen and holding the Bank to the standards it should uphold?
I beg to differ very strongly with the sentiments of the weekly citizen newpaper and would the said directors to come up and stand to be counted if they are genuine. Remember the letter in Parliament was from a Mr. Patel Shah who is a fake entity all together.
Lets be careful what we spread for if newspapers keep splashing such headlines, we will kill an institution people have built. Remember how innocent people and children spent the night in the cold simply because somebody sent a fake email and sms that Nairobi will be wiped out by an earthquake on Thursday last week.
Lets us not drag dirt tribal politics,if you do not know Equity bank is in every corner of the nation Kisumu,Garissa,Malindi,Kisii,Nyeri,Kiambu etc.It has employed all more then 2500 kenyans despite their tribes.Equity bank is bank for the common mwananchi which is Affordable to all kenyans.......
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