Mathare MP and minister for Sports Maina Kamanda, was asked for comment over the escalating violence in his constituency in he ealy days of skirmishes. His remarks were strange, bordering on the bizarre. He said that he did not see any major problem in Mathare. Was the MP frightened of the Mungiki?
Two city MPs have been linked to hooligans and terror groups in the past, and many a political opponent has quickly and rather painfully found out that these are not people to mess with. The two city MPs are Mathare MP Maina Kamanda and Embakasi MP (now assistant minister) David Mwenje who is on record as having publicly expressed support for Mungiki in the Moi days.
================
Join in our raging debate on the real cause of insecurity in Kenya.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Why Are Newspaper Vendors Being Paid Not To Sell The Standard?
As the political temperatures continue to rise rapidly in Kenya, all sorts of strange things are beginning to happen all over the place.
A recent report from Kenya's oldest daily newspaper, the East African Standard indicates that there are groups of unknown people going round compensating vendors in cash not to display or sell the Standard newspaper.
The big question is who could be behind this mischievous development? This is a question that is not too difficult to answer.
It has been clear for sometime now that the Standard group, which includes the popular KTN (Kenya Television Network), has been a thorn in the flesh to the Kibaki regime. This culminated in the infamous Standard raid earlier this year where hooded persons believed to be policemen raided the newspaper offices and burnt newspapers, took away computers and technically shut down the KTN station for hours on end as the management scrambled to pick up the pieces and get the popular TV channel back on air.
If truth be told, insiders say that up to that point the Standard newspapers circulation sales were low and struggling. The raid had the inevitable effect of causing the newspapers' circulation to climb rapidly. Naturally people wanted to read for themselves what it was that was upsetting the government so much.
In fact if you pick any copy of the Standard newspaper even today or listen to a KTN news bulletin you will quickly note that the media group is generally more sharply critical of the government than its' main competitor, the Nation media group. Although government hawks have read some mischief in this, the explanation is really very simple.
It is widely believed that the Standard group's main shareholder (who has remained a deep mystery to this day) is actually former President Daniel arap Moi. In the last days of Kanu, the paper was forced by these circumstances to tone down its' criticism of the Moi government. Thankfully, enough lessons had been learnt from the Kenya Times debacle for the former president's financial advisors to strongly advice against turning the newspaper into another party mouthpiece, because that would have surely killed this lucrative cash cow.
When the Kibaki government took power, many journalists, frustrated from the previous in-house gagging went overboard to make up for lost time. This is basically the situation that reigns at the newspaper to this day.
Could it be that the same campaign unit that has flooded blogs (including this one) and discussion forums online, pushing the Kibaki agenda, has also hit the streets to curtail the distribution of the critical Standard newspaper? It seems that there is really no other direction in which to point an accusing finger.
If this is true then the people behind the continued purge on the Standard must be sure that they have things under control at the Nation media group. Incidentally it was the Nation that broke the Anglo Leasing scandal story but has since become increasingly docile to the point of printing blatant lies under pressure about the Presidents' second wife and other family. More so now that there is a new CEO who is yet to develop the thick skin required to fend off political powers that be.
================
Join in our raging debate on the real cause of insecurity in Kenya.
A recent report from Kenya's oldest daily newspaper, the East African Standard indicates that there are groups of unknown people going round compensating vendors in cash not to display or sell the Standard newspaper.
The big question is who could be behind this mischievous development? This is a question that is not too difficult to answer.
It has been clear for sometime now that the Standard group, which includes the popular KTN (Kenya Television Network), has been a thorn in the flesh to the Kibaki regime. This culminated in the infamous Standard raid earlier this year where hooded persons believed to be policemen raided the newspaper offices and burnt newspapers, took away computers and technically shut down the KTN station for hours on end as the management scrambled to pick up the pieces and get the popular TV channel back on air.
If truth be told, insiders say that up to that point the Standard newspapers circulation sales were low and struggling. The raid had the inevitable effect of causing the newspapers' circulation to climb rapidly. Naturally people wanted to read for themselves what it was that was upsetting the government so much.
In fact if you pick any copy of the Standard newspaper even today or listen to a KTN news bulletin you will quickly note that the media group is generally more sharply critical of the government than its' main competitor, the Nation media group. Although government hawks have read some mischief in this, the explanation is really very simple.
It is widely believed that the Standard group's main shareholder (who has remained a deep mystery to this day) is actually former President Daniel arap Moi. In the last days of Kanu, the paper was forced by these circumstances to tone down its' criticism of the Moi government. Thankfully, enough lessons had been learnt from the Kenya Times debacle for the former president's financial advisors to strongly advice against turning the newspaper into another party mouthpiece, because that would have surely killed this lucrative cash cow.
When the Kibaki government took power, many journalists, frustrated from the previous in-house gagging went overboard to make up for lost time. This is basically the situation that reigns at the newspaper to this day.
Could it be that the same campaign unit that has flooded blogs (including this one) and discussion forums online, pushing the Kibaki agenda, has also hit the streets to curtail the distribution of the critical Standard newspaper? It seems that there is really no other direction in which to point an accusing finger.
If this is true then the people behind the continued purge on the Standard must be sure that they have things under control at the Nation media group. Incidentally it was the Nation that broke the Anglo Leasing scandal story but has since become increasingly docile to the point of printing blatant lies under pressure about the Presidents' second wife and other family. More so now that there is a new CEO who is yet to develop the thick skin required to fend off political powers that be.
================
Join in our raging debate on the real cause of insecurity in Kenya.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)