Special supplement - Aga Khan Development Network

Transcription

DAILY NATION
Thursday March 18, 2010
50 GOLDEN YEARS I
THE GOLDEN YEARS
SOUVENIR ISSUE
II | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
PUBLISHER:
NATION MEDIA GROUP
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR:
JOSEPH ODINDO
EDITORIAL ADVISOR:
WA N G E T H I M WA N G I
PROJECT EDITOR:
N I C K WA C H I R A
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:
GERRY LOUGHRAN, LUCY
O R I A N G , K I B E K A M U N Y U,
RUTH LUBEMBE
CREATIVE DIRECTOR:
K A M AU WA N Y O I K E
PA G E D E S I G N E R S :
DENNIS MAKORI, PETER
C H E S E R E T, C O N R A D K A RU M E
PHOTO EDITOR:
JOAN PERERUAN
PHOTO RESEARCHERS:
NOORBEGUM KANANI,
A N N I E L N J O K A , E VA N S
SASAKA,
C H A R L E S B E T T, M A R I A
WA M B UA K A N I N I
LEAD WRITERS:
GERRY LOUGHRAN, JOHN
KAMAU
CONTRIBUTORS:
N I C K C H I T T Y, G E RA R D
WILKINSON, PETER
CHADWICK, PHILIP OCHIENG,
J O H N M C H A F F I E , PA U L
REDFERN, JEFF OTIENO,
M A R G A R E T TA WA G A C H E RU,
MACHARIA GAITHO, DICK
DAWSON, YUSUF K . DAWOOD,
JOHN FOX, DOROTHY
K W E Y U, JA I N D I K I S E R O,
M U T U M A M AT H I U, E R I C
O B I N O. WA N G U I M A I NA ,
G A K I H A W E RU, WA N J I RU
WA I T H A K A , K E N O PA L A ,
CALEB ATEMI, GAVIN
B E N N E T T, K U I K I N YA N J U I ,
AMOS NGAIRA,FRANK
W H A L L E Y, K I B E K A M U N Y U,
P H I L I P M WA N I K I , S H R AVA N
VIDYARTHI, HEZEKIAH
W E P U K H U LU, D O R O T H Y
C H E B E T, F R E D O LU O C H ,
M U NA WA H O M E , R A C H E L
JONES, DAVID ADUDA , SAMMY
WA M B UA , L I Z M U T H O N I , F R E D
OMONDI, NJERI KIHANG’A,
COSMAS BUTUNYI, FRED
OLOUCH, JENIFFER MUIRURI,
WILLIAM OERI.
Afte≥ 5 decades, the futu≥e
depends on ability to adapt
The Nation has become a journalistic mzee of East
Africa, writes HIS HIGHNESS THE AGA KHAN
A
S THE NATION MEDIA Group
(NMG) marks its 50th anniversary, it would be too limiting
to perceive this occasion as a mere
milestone in a history of a media organization, no matter how successful.
The Nation’s path has been closely entwined with the history of Kenya, East
Africa, and the entire continent during
a period filled with momentous developments.
NMG itself has undergone a remarkable transformation. From two struggling Kenyan newspapers, one Kiswahili and one English, half a century
ago, the group has grown into the larg-
from the Network’s significant experience in East Africa.
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic
Development is neither a charitable
foundation nor a vehicle for wealth generation. It is a for-profit, international
development agency that, because of
its institutional background and social
conscience, invests in projects, which
will make a positive contribution to the
quality of life for those who are impacted by their activities.
The broader philosophy of the Aga
Khan Development Network is founded on the premise that developing societies deserve the best and that settling
NMG ITSELF HAS UNDERGONE A REMARKABLE
TRANSFORMATION. FROM GROWN INTO THE
LARGEST MULTI-MEDIA ENTERPRISE IN EAST AND
CENTRAL AFRICA.
est multi-media enterprise in East and
Central Africa. At the same time, the
organization has evolved from a small
private company into a publicly-traded
corporation, one of the largest on the
Kenya stock exchange, with a majority
of its shares owned by individual East
African shareholders.
My own role in the Nation Media
Group has also evolved considerably.
Seven years ago I gave my personal
shares in NMG to the Aga Khan Fund
for Economic Development (AKFED)
– the economic development arm of
the Aga Khan Development Network
(AKDN). The move not only gave NMG
a new source of corporate strength
but it also anchored the company in
a broader development philosophy
designed to bring excellence and best
practices to societies in the developing
world. It also allowed NMG to benefit
for less, though often tempting, is an increasingly dangerous option. Our world
is competitive: like other AKFED companies, the Nation Media Group must
strive to meet world-class standards if
it is to thrive and grow in the globalized
world of the 21st century
Our Network, I should also emphasize, is active in a broad range of development fields, from environmental,
humanitarian and civil society projects
to microfinance and infrastructure investments, to cultural, health-related
and educational support. East Africa
has been an important setting for our
work in all of these arenas, including,
most recently, major new initiatives in
education.
For example, Kenya is the home of
the first functioning Aga Khan Academy, located in Mombasa, and one of
a network of 18 schools that will even-
tually provide world class primary
and secondary education to talented
students in 14 countries across three
continents. I am pleased that East Africa will also host the continent’s first
faculty of Arts and Sciences of the Aga
Khan University (AKU) as well as the
university’s new Graduate School of
Media and Communication. It is my
sincere hope that the school, which
will be initially located in Nairobi and
later extended to the new Arusha campus, will help Africa in particular and
the developing world in general to develop an ever-stronger corps of owners,
media managers, public-spirited professional journalists who will be able to
adapt and excel in a rapidly changing
media environment.
I believe that the media in general
and the Nation Group in particular can
play a central role in the shaping of the
region and the continent in the years
ahead, as part of the growing influence
of civil society institutions in an increasingly pluralistic environment.
Indeed Kofi Annan, arbitrator of the
post-election reconciliation agreement
in Kenya, acknowledged the Nation’s
work in mobilising the forces of civil
society in the cause of stability.
Anniversaries tend to lend themselves to reminiscing about the past—
and, most appropriately, to saluting
those who have been a part of that past,
as I am pleased to join in doing. But
commemorative occasions also present
an excellent opportunity to look toward
the future. NMG has had an impressive
record of past achievement , dealing
successfully over five decades with a
wide variety of challenges and opportunities, and emerging as what some have
called a journalistic “Mzee” of East Africa. But now, NMG’s future will depend
on its continued ability to learn and to
adapt, to attract leaders and employees
of the highest quality, and, driven by an
ethic of responsible service, maintain
the confidence of its reading, viewing,
advertising and shareholding constituents
50 GOLDEN YEARS III
DAILY NATION
We can’t go too fa≥ w≥ong
when a nation talks to itself
By PHILIP OCHIENG
When I first joined the Nation as
a cub reporter in 1966, I never
ceased to be intrigued by a message in large print pinned on the
inside walls of the old Nation
House in Nairobi’s Tom Mboya
Street. Attributed to the proprietor of a well known chain of
London newspapers, it said: “A
free newspaper, I suppose, is a
NATION talking to itself”.
Whoever chose it as the Nation’s motto – probably Michael
Curtis (the founding managing
director) or John Bierman (the
founding editor) or the Aga Khan
himself (the investor) -- it was a
most appropriate dictum for
the circumstances in which the
newspaper was being born.
For it was a brilliant play on
the word “nation”. It sought to
identify their coming publication with the problems and aspirations of another nation in
the last years of gestation -- the
Kenyan nation.
By naming itself NATION
and giving prominence to the
dictum on the walls, the instigators of the Nation were clear that
their aim was for the Nation to be
born together with the other nation, so that, thereafter, the two
nations could grow up together
in symbiosis.
Would one nation (the peo-
ple and their new state) help
the other Nation (the newspaper group) to make its mission
manifest by gathering, editing,
commenting on and disseminating information countrywide
and internationally – freely and
without any fear of retaliation?
One of the more interesting
features of the first edition of
the Nation (in English) was a
cartoon depicting the Nation as
a baby boy sleeping in its cot,
watched by the redoubtable Tom
Mboya and Ronald Ngala among
other nationalists. Underneath
the cartoon, one commented:
“He’s a cute little boy, but will he
behave?”
The question could, of course,
also have gone the other way.
I was there at the place near
the Carnivore, Nairobi, and,
at midnight on December 12,
1963, watched as the Union flag
was lowered for good for Jomo
Kenyatta to hoist in its place
our new red-green-and-black
standard.
Have the newspaper and the
state maintained their initial
“good looks”? Have they behaved with admiration? Have
they proved of adequate mutual
assistance? The probable answer
is: Not as much as the two might
have hoped for as they celebrated
their first anniversaries.
Yet, of course, the answer to
the last question must be a big
“Yes”. The two nations have been
almost identical-minded on a
large number of objective national interests.
However, one nation appears
to have progressively lapsed in
delivering its promises to the
people – in terms of quantity,
quality and speed – and the other
nation has tried to discharge its
duty in the division of labour
– by reminding its older twin of
this lapse.
This has necessarily created
tension between the two nations, a tension which has increased with age.
Policemen have invaded newspaper offices and confiscated or
incapacitated their equipment.
They have clobbered journalists and destroyed their cameras
on public occasions. Merely for
doing my duty with a critical
hand, I have had to spend harrowing days in squalid police
cells.
Having edited an official newspaper, I know, however, that
many statesmen recognise that
the state desperately needs an
independent press.
The editors, for their part,
know that, despite this unreliability of the political class
– nay, probably because of it – it
is the political class that promises to provide the newspapers
with the biggest, raciest and
most lucrative headlines.
Between our two nations, it
might be called rika rivalry or
sibling jealousy or – as with the
gods of mythology – “fraternal
contending”.
The task is to guide the contention in such a manner that it
throws more light
than heat into the social arena
of contention. Let neither of the
two nations forget the words of
that London newspaper proprietor: A newspaper can be free only
if it is a Nation talking to itself
freely, boldly, knowledgeably and
with a clear national purpose.
The first
Nation published on
March 20,
1960. It sold
for 30 cents.
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“THE NATION”
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IV | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
CHRONOLOGY
DAILY NATION
FROM CONCEPTION TO MATURITY
1960-1985: The long journey for
The Nation was born at a time of turbulent world affairs
on March 20, 1960, and it described itself as East
Africa’s newest, liveliest Sunday newspaper
B
April 1960
After Banda, Jomo
“After Banda, Jomo” ran a front page story
on April 3, 1960. The release of Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda in Malawi had set off a
demand for Kenyatta’s release from restriction. Back in London, Colonial Secretary Iain
Macleod was weighing all the options although the Governor in Nairobi, Sir Patrick
Renison, was still hesistant to release
Kenyatta, a man he would later describe as
a “leader unto darkness and death”.
Macleod was of the view that the future
of the colonial economy would be solid if
“strong men” rose.
“Jomo: We Plead no More – Gichuru” was
one of the catchy headlines of the moment enough to cause panic within the
settler community. By this time it was felt
in London that if Kenyatta had solid support it would be better to set him free to
assume leadership in Kenya rather than let
internal power struggles wreck the country.
In a sense, Macleod was happy to have the
African nationalists go. On Banda, he had
told the Times of London: “He is not an evil
man” and honestly desires and works for his
people. But Banda was to later emerge, with
the help of the British as an example of an
astute African dictator. Had we called him
a “dynamic forward-looking leader” in our
editorial? Yes, we had.
y any measure, 1960
was an epoch-defining
year. At a time when
the Cold War between
the Kremlin and the West held a
fearful world in its grip, American spy pilot Gary Powers was
shot down over Soviet territory.
France tested its first atomic
bomb, Fidel Castro nationalised
industry in Cuba and Nikita
Khrushchev angrily pounded
his shoe on a desk at the United
Nations.
Africa was in ferment. The
Sharpeville massacre in South Africa brought demands for national independence to boiling point
all over the continent and in
French West Africa, colony after
colony demanded and secured its
sovereignty. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan signalled
that the same course must follow
in Anglophone Africa when he
declared, first in Accra, then in
Cape Town: “The wind of change
is blowing through this continent
and, whether we like it or not, the
growth of national consciousness
is a political fact…our national
policies must take account of it.”
Africa’s restlessness was mirrored in the United States, where
Afro-American students began a
series of sit-ins at lunch counters,
demanding an end to segregation
and recognition of blacks’ civil
rights. But two young Americans
hinted at a new era ahead.
At the Rome Olympics, Muhammad Ali, then known as
Cassius Clay, won a boxing gold
medal, and presidential candidate John F. Kennedy first suggested a peace corps be formed
to help the less-favoured nations,
an idea that came to fruition after
his election the following year.
It was into this turbulent world
that, on March 20, 1960, The Nation was born. Describing itself
as “East Africa’s newest, liveliest Sunday,” a leading article declared: “Very briefly, we intend to
live up to our name and do everything in our power to help the
various communities of East Africa to build nations where people of all races can live freely and
peacefully under the rule of law.
Beyond this, The Nation accepts
the desirability of the transfer of
power to African majorities in the
three territories of East Africa
within the next few years.”
Just as Macmillan’s “wind of
change” statement to South Africa’s white lawmakers in Cape
Town was met with stony silence,
The Nation’s declared support for
African majority rule provoked a
similarly hostile reaction from
many in Kenya’s white, settler
community. Although Mau Mau
activities had long ended, a state
of emergency was still in force,
the economy was fragile, land
values were plummeting and the
talk among farmers was of selling-up and fleeing south.
On the day after The Nation’s
birth, a Johannesburg township
became an international byword
for atrocity and the newspaper’s
second issue carried the heading,
“Black Monday at Sharpeville.”
A spread of smuggled photos
showed the scattered bodies of
some 69 South African blacks
gunned down by Sten-gun-armed
police during a demonstration
against that country’s draconian
pass laws. Ten of the dead were
children and eight were women;
180 others were injured.
“There was no warning,” reported The Nation’s special correspondent, “no shots over the
heads of the crowd, not even firing at the feet. It was a concentrated, cold-blooded burst after
burst into the packed crowd.”
The massacre prompted widespread outrage and international condemnation and became a
turning point in South African
history, driving the regime deep
into isolation until the fall of
apartheid many decades later.
But first, another South African sensation grabbed headlines in Kenya. Just two weeks
after Sharpeville, a pro-empire,
anti-apartheid white farmer
shot Prime Minister Hendrik
Verwoerd twice in the face. The
tough old Afrikaner survived
and soon returned to power,
but in 1966, he was stabbed to
death in the Cape Town parliament building by a messenger
who was later declared insane.
Few new newspapers could have
feasted on such a significant diet
of events of immediately relevant
import.
The Nation was a Sunday
paper, changing its title to Sunday Nation shortly before the
Daily Nation was launched seven
months later. It was not the sort
of newspaper Kenyans were accustomed to read. For a start, it
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
50 GOLDEN YEARS V
DAILY NATION
Nation from conception to maturity
ABOVE: Kenyans
at the lancaster
conference in London before independence.
EXTREME LEFT:
Jomo Kenyatta
holds up signed
documents of
state.
LEFT: Presidents
Nyerere, Milton
Obote and General Idi Amin in
Nairobi to attend
the Uhuru celebrations.
The Nation’s support for majority rule as declared in its launch
issue, while proclaiming where the group’s sympathies lay, boldly
challenged the establishment’s accepted scenario for the path to
independence
was produced using the then
revolutionary web-offset method of printing, a new technology
which provided quality far ahead
of that available to other publishing houses.
Also, unlike the broadsheet
East African Standard, which
dominated the market, it was
what is now known as a compact. The shape alone reminded
expatriates of the popular British
tabloid, Daily Mirror, which they
considered sensational and unreliable. In fact, while it may have
been guilty of sensationalism and
self-aggrandisement, the Mirror
reported aggressively and conscientiously on issues of importance
and had its own network of corre-
spondents around the world.
The choice of newspapers in
colonial Kenya was limited. For
English speakers, in addition to
the Standard, there was the Sunday Post and a small number of
weekly magazines, prominent
among them the Kenya Weekly
News published in Nakuru. Ethnic newspapers were available,
mainly Asian, but including
Baraza and Jicho in Kiswahili. To
these had recently been added
Taifa Leo, the first Kiswahili daily
and the Nation Group’s first publishing effort, which it developed
in 1959 from a weekly bought
from private interests. There
were also publications devoted to
specific African community inter-
ests and written in the languages
of those communities.
There was no doubt where
Kenya’s established English-language publications stood politically – four-square behind the
Governor and the colonial government which in turn acknowledged the authority of the British
government in London. Indeed
the East African Standard carried
Britain’s coat of arms on its front
page until the day before Kenya
achieved independence, December 12, 1963. Thus The Nation’s
support for majority rule “within
the next few years” as declared in
its launch issue, while proclaiming where the group’s sympathies
lay, boldly challenged the estab-
lishment’s accepted scenario for
the path to independence. This,
even among many sympathisers,
foresaw that if Africans were ever
to rule Kenya, it would be many,
many years in the future.
Commercially, however, The
Nation’s stance made it a hostage
to fortune, since illiteracy among
its target African audience was
high, while most of those with
consumer power found its political stance too radical by far.
It was evident that if the new
paper were to succeed, it would
be a long and punishing journey.
It proved to be so. The commitment to African majority rule
was no accident.
Back in 1957, the Aga Khan,
leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili
Muslims worldwide, had been
talking with young African nationalists such as Tom Mboya
and Julius Kiano about what lay
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
March 1960
Kanu is born
The formation of Kanu, a coalition
of political parties, was a milestone
in Kenyan politics. Uniting different
politicians who were leading small
parties was no mean task. It was no
wonder that Kanu faced managerial
problems. The stewardship at
headquarters was left to Mr Mwai
Kibaki, a young economist who had
been brought from Makerere to help
craft the party manifesto.
Kanu received popular support
among the Luo, Kikuyu and Kamba
and became the majority party.
But some of the early problems
within the party persisted and the
Nation expressed concern that the
internal wrangles might blow up in
government once Kanu took power.
“The Daily Nation asks it publicly
because we believe it is in Kanu’s
interests that these internal doubts
and quarrels should be faced
squarely, openly and as quickly
as possible. There can no longer
be any doubt that something is
seriously wrong with the party. Its
senior office holders do not act as
a team and there still appears to be
no proper machinery for ensuring
that policy statements are agreed
before they are issued to the public
and the Press,” wrote the Nation
in December 1961. “Kanu has a
duty to itself and to Kenya to deal
with the trouble-makers swiftly
and ruthlessly. In Mr Kenyatta,
Mr Gichuru and Mr Mboya, Kanu
possesses formidable leaders of
calibre and character.
VI | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
A long and punishing
journey for the paper
REFLECTIONS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
in Kenya’s future.
The Aga Khan assumed leadership
of his community at the age of 20 on
the death of his grandfather. Having
lived in Kenya as a boy, in a house in
a Nairobi suburb, his association with
the country was no accident. He was
well aware that most newspapers in
East Africa tended to be mouthpieces
of the colonial governments, denying
any platform for the aspirations of up-
How Nation echoed
the national story
WILFRED KIBORO:
Former Group Chief
Executive officer of Nation
Media and currently the
Group’s chairman.
I
came to a small company with turnover
of around one billion
shillings and profit a
quarter of a billion shillings
but our
vision was very clear - we
wanted to be the leading
media house in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and later, the
Media of Africa for Africa.
However we were too dependent on one product – the Daily
Nation – which contributed 95
per cent of our revenues. We
decided to diversify into radio,
television and digital.
We also introduced daily
magazine inserts to generate
new revenue streams.
But those were rough times
and in many ways the Nation
Media Group story became
the national story - the story
of how Kenyans struggled
against single party dictatorship and for the expansion of
the democratic space.
After a long struggle for licences and then frequencies,
we got into broadcasting with
a bang. People loved what we
were putting out and advertisers flocked to us. With time we
expanded our broadcasting
reach from Nairobi to other
towns such as Mombasa,
Nakuru and Kisumu.
With the 2002 election, the
people who had been agitating for change came to power
and we had to redefine our relationship with them to fulfill
our mandate of keeping the
government on its toes
One of the key goals that kept
us focused generally was the
dream of joining the billion
shilling club in terms of profits.
We achieved this in 2002 or
2003 and the Group is now
on track to hit the two billion
shilling mark.
When I joined in 1993 advertising revenue was something
like Sh20 million a month. By
the time I left it was around
Sh20 million a day.
The two defining moments
of my tenure were installing
a new Sh750 million printing press and our entry into
broadcasting.
Another key time was the
2007 election when we deliberately tried to maintain
balance in our reporting. We
worked hard to try to bring
the country together.
Now Nation must move with
the times and we have to reengineer ourselves into the digital world to stay relevant.
Radio, television and the Internet will merge and in ten
years time although our core
business will still be informing
people and linking consumers and others, our structure
and the way we work will have
changed radically.
coming African politicians. Believing
they were entitled to a full say in the
independence debate, he determined to
start a newspaper that would be open
to all voices.
The Aga Khan’s media aide at the
time was Michael Curtis, a former editor of the News Chronicle in London,
and it was Curtis who became the architect of a group which grew eventually to
dominate the East and Central African
publishing market. In the straitened
circumstances of the time, however,
Commercially, however, The Nation’s stance made
it a hostage to fortune, since illiteracy among its
target African audience was high, while most of
those with consumer power found its political
stance too radical by far
outside investment proved impossible
to secure and so funding of the venture,
with all its concomitant risks, came exclusively from the Aga Khan. John Bierman was hired from Fleet Street to be
editor and editorial and production
staff were recruited, mainly from Britain because of the paucity of trained
African journalists and managers.
The aim, however, stated and much
repeated, was to create a newspaper
that would be “written and managed
by Africans for Africans.” Curtis rented
a former bakery on what was then Victoria Street in central Nairobi, it was
adapted for newspaper production and
the foundations of the group were laid.
If Kenya’s conservative readers looked
CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
Above: From
right, President
Jomo Kenyatta,
Julius Nyerere
of Tanzania and
Tom Mboya (dark
suit) at the airport. Far left is
Daniel arap Moi.
Left: Editor
George Githii
and management executives
accompany the
Aga Khan during
an early visit to
the Nation House
newsroom.
NMG ARCHIVES
DAILY NATION
50 GOLDEN YEARS VII
VIII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
REFLECTIONS
Telling the sto≥y of The Nation f≥om bi≥th t
I have known the company
from birth to jubilee and can
say our performance has
been gold standard
By GERRY LOUGHRAN
I
cannot be sure when the
idea of writing a history
of the Nation group first
emerged, but I have a
memo in my files dated October 1995 stating that there were
strong reasons for publishing
such an account.
It said: “The proprietor’s vision
and strength of will (and investment commitment) have never
been properly acknowledged,
nor has the courage of our editors
and reporters. Finally, the whole
thing is a darned good story and
if we don’t tell it now, it will be
too late.”
We did not tell it immediately,
indeed we took nearly 15 years to
do so, but that had more to do
with bureaucratic and political
vicissitudes than with editorial
sloth. And when the story was
finally set out in a book, Birth of
a Nation, it proved, though I say
it myself, to be a very good story
indeed.
Author Gerry
Loughran
and inset his
book, Birth of
a Nation
That I was
commissioned as
author was probably inevitable, since not only was I available, I had experience with the
Nation across the years -- from
the earliest days (1960-64 as a
sub-editor and assistant editor),
again in 1983 (executive editor)
and in the era of expansion and
maturity (1993-98 as a consultant editor). Over many of these
years, I contributed a weekly Let-
ter from London to the Sunday
Nation, and indeed still do.
Thus tasked with telling a
story dating back 50 years, what
is the first thing an historian
would do? He would race to gather the memories of the pioneers
– young men and women in the
1960s but now long retired, scattered far from Africa, perhaps
physically not too well. Written
sources could be scanned later.
The search proved long and
arduous but exciting, too, as retirees were located one by one
and happily committed to tape
memories that were wholly
truthful and authentic as they
remembered them, if occasionally roseate and sometimes uncomfortable, too.
Charles Hayes was the ex-colonial government officer who sold
the weekly Taifa to the Nation,
thus starting the company down
the publishing road, and became
the group’s first editorial director.
I found him in British Columbia,
Canada, where he had edited his
own local paper for many years
along with his wife, Margaret,
a one-time Nation stringer in
Nakuru and a Kenya memoirist
in her own right.
Hayes had owned Taifa jointly
with Althea Tebbutt, who became
the Nation’s first advertising
manager. She lived in New Zealand, but I caught up with her on
a visit back to Britain.
I renewed contacts with Errol
Trzebinski, one of Mrs Tebbutt’s
original sales team. Still resident
in Kenya, she was by then an international figure known for her
writings on colonial-era personalities like Denys Finch Hatton,
Karen Blixen, Beryl Markham
and Lord Erroll. Her book, Silence Will Speak, was the prime
source for the Oscar-winning
film, Out of Africa. She lives in a
gracious 18th century house on
the island of Lamu.
The first managing director,
Frank Pattrick, had died in South
Africa when my search began,
but his successor, Stan Denman,
lived in Dorset and invited me
over. The hunt for journalists
and managers, both with the Nation and opposition media, took
me to Geneva and Schonried in
Switzerland, Galway and Dub-
Hongera
The management and staff of
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50 GOLDEN YEARS IX
DAILY NATION
to matu≥ity
lin in Ireland, Dubai, Italy, Australia, and in Britain to London,
Cheltenham, Stowmarket, Dover,
Newcastle upon Tyne, Nelson
Colne, Brighton, Bideford and
Devizes.
Recollections arrived by mail
and email from Australia, New
Zealand, Zimbabwe and South
Africa and many interviews
were concluded during return
visits to Nairobi. There, Nation
officers opened the company’s
books to me freely and without
restriction.
The greatest prize, however,
a treasure trove of information,
was made available by Michael
Curtis, effectively architect and
builder of the whole venture. At
34, Michael had been one of Fleet
Street’s youngest editors, piloting
the News Chronicle through difficult times. But he disagreed
with the owners’ militantly progovernment stance over Britain’s
invasion of Suez and resigned on
principle.
Joining the Aga Khan as a Press
advisor (and much more) shortly
after the young prince succeeded
his grandfather, Curtis accompanied him on a world tour of his
Ismaili community. Confronted
with the self-serving and tendentious nature of the colonial-era
media, the Aga Khan conceived
a vision of an independent Kenya
newspaper which would be open
to all races, honest and objective, and dogged in the pursuit of
truth. It was Michael Curtis who,
in 1959, began to turn this dream
into reality.
As chief executive, he piloted
the organisation through its testing first decade before he relocated to France to assist the Aga
Khan in a variety of his other interests. Even then, as a long-time
Nation board member, he maintained meticulous files, gold to
any prospector.
Invited to stay at his lovely
country house near historic Senlis, I spent endless hours perusing minutes, memos, notes and
directives about the problems
and triumphs of the early years,
along with hundreds of letters,
telegrams, faxes and old-style
“dictabelts” (a distant ancestor
of the audio tape) which were
exchanged between Michael
and the Aga Khan. This information was supported by files
at the Aga Khan’s secretariat at
nearby Aiglemont and generous
assistance from Gerry Wilkinson,
a former managing director who,
with almost four decades under
his belt dating back to 1971, was
the company’s longest serving
director.
Very few ex-Nation people declined to talk to me, even those
The first editorial cartoon
in
1960.
whose memories were not entirely positive, though a handful did
not respond. Many more politicians did not grace my requests
with a reply.
Doing the interviews was
mostly a personal pleasure. Not
only did I meet up with many old
friends, but I made the acquaintance of others of whom I had
heard a great deal but never met.
Mostly the sessions lasted a couple of hours, with the interviewee talking into my tape recorder.
But for some key people, we held
several meetings over a number
of days.
I always transcribed the tapes
in full, though perhaps as little as
five per cent might be used. I felt
it necessary to get a feel for the
conditions of the time and if the
subject wandered off topic, that
was fine. How accurate were the
recollections? I like to think they
were very close to total truth.
When possible, I asked other
interviewees identical questions
and vague memories of dates and
times could often be checked in
the Nation’s own back copies.
Written information piled up
inexorably and I ended up with
This is an attempt to render in coherent and sympathetic form
the story of a young newspaper struggling to report honestly and
accurately on the convulsions, successes and failures of an equally
young nation
RECOLLECTIONS
Keeping the author on the right lines
By GERRY LOUGHRAN
A
major fear for authors
writing on historical
events is of going astray
on subjects outside of their expertise. Writing most areas of
the group’s history, “Birth of a
Nation,” I felt confident and secure because I knew journalism,
I knew East Africa and I knew
the Nation group. And where I
was unsure, there were sources
aplenty to confirm or correct the
facts.
But in arcane matters of nuance,
personal history and the effect
of public affairs on private lives,
I quickly decided I would need
guidance and, happily, I was recommended to a retired Kenyan
advocate, Mr Anil Ishani. I quickly realized I could have found no
keener or subtler mind to assist
in my work.
Anil qualified as a barrister in
London in 1959, spent several
years back in Kenya with the
family firm, Ishani and Ishani
Advocates, returned to the UK
in 1972, qualifying as a solicitor
with a city firm of solicitors, and
became a specialist in commercial property matters.
At the same time, he enjoyed the
confidence of the founder and
begetter of the Nation group, His
Highness the Aga Khan, and held
a variety of leadership positions
in the Ismaili community. Making his home back in Kenya, from
1997 until retirement in 2007,
he was Resident Representative
of the Aga Khan Development
Network.
Having served the Aga Khan for
48 years, his guidance was certain and assured.
I have stated elsewhere that I
wrote “Birth of a Nation” without direction or restriction and
this is true. But as a rally driver
depends on his co-pilot, so I
needed Anil’s assistance in navigating esoteric areas beyond
my ken.
It worked like this: Anil would
take away a draft of relevant
chapters, peruse them in his
meticulous and lawyerly way,
then return and set out his arguments for change, rephrasing,
removal or retention. Sometimes I had simply got my facts
wrong – titles, dates, forms of
address; in other areas, he might
support the facts but question
my interpretation or use of language.
For instance, though I knew
Kenya, I had not worked there
for some years, whereas he had.
Gently, he questioned whether
my indignation over perceived
injustices by officialdom was not
more of an outsider’s point of
view, a failure to acknowledge
success in the face of huge dif-
ficulties and to give credit where
it was due. In most cases, I have
to confess, his judiciousness
brought balance to the page,
substituting calm level-headedness for unbridled rhetoric.
It was not without apprehension
at our several meetings that
I glanced at the many yellow
stickers jutting from his draft
copy.
But happily these were not
always queries of fact or inter-
pretation but often reminders of
supplementary evidence or additional arguments on a question
under discussion.
Anil was by no means the only
outside source I resorted to in
my research for “Birth of a Nation,” but it is fair to say that
without the depth and breadth
of his knowledge and the accuracy of his perceptions, the book
would have been a distinctly
lesser achievement.
Nation
newsroom
on Tom
Mboya
Street.
Boaz Omori
The Nation editors I have
known, from 1964 to 2009
By PHILIP OCHIENG
A
lthough George Githii
and I later clashed seriously, I am always
grateful to him for
opening the gate of journalism
to me. It was Githii, editor-inchief of the Nation, and Michael
Curtis, managing director, who
offered me my first job as a reporter.
George was also the most
remarkable editor I have ever
served under. Other editorial
pontiffs I have worked with in
Kenya include Hilary Ng’weno,
Boaz Omori, Joe Rodrigues, Peter
Mwaura, George Mbugguss and
Wangethi Mwangi.
George was fond of transferring
into his articles material from a
book he had just read to help him
floor his interlocutors. Moreover,
his newspaper had a predilection
for pursuing to their ends certain
burning social issues of the day.
I have never seen his equal
in the practice of taking a hot
topic and charging his investigative reporters to dig down to the
taproots.
One day in 1967, after furnishing me with all kinds of literature
on Jomo Kenyatta, George locked
me in a room where I spent many
long weeks studying, making
phone calls and then writing numerous lengthy biographical stories on the Grand Old Man.
George locked me in a room where I
spent many long weeks studying, making phone calls and then writing numerous lengthy biographical stories on the
grand old man
George was clearly the most
controversial. Paradoxically, the
man who looked like Kenya’s
most independent-minded editor was also its most one-sided.
Yet I admired George for three
reasons. One was that he never
allowed any of the (expatriate)
non-editorial managers “upstairs” to bend his editorial line.
Second, he took the trouble to
reply personally and under his
own by-line to criticisms of both
the newspaper and the Kenyatta
government. One still remembers strongly worded polemics
against Jaramogi Odinga, Bildad Kaggia and Darius Msaga
Mbela.
Later -- as a graduate of
England’s Oxford University --
The editor never told me why
such obituary-focussed writing
was necessary. For the President
looked perfectly hale and hearty.
But George was linked through
many tendrils to the Old Man’s
closest aides and when he gave
me the assignment he knew that
Mzee had collapsed in Mombasa
and was then unconscious, perhaps indeed dead.
President Kenyatta did later
regain consciousness but editor
Githii had learned an important
lesson. Such an eventuality must
never again catch his newspapers unprepared, with empty
files. Which is why I pursued this
assignment for weeks, entirely
in the dark about what had happened.
Joe Rodrigues
A steady, quiet, knowledgeable and
stabilising editor who took the first
steps to introducing a code of practice
for journalists. His contacts were wide,
his political antennae impeccable and
his early death was widely mourned
inside and outside the industry.
My articles were then locked
up in a safe where they underwent the “criticism” of time for
a whole 10 years. It was not until
1978 – when the President did
die (and long after Githii had left
Nation House) – that my articles
were retrieved. They were what
chief sub-editor John McHaffie splashed all over the place
(minus my byline) on that fateful day.
Unwittingly, my efforts may
well have contributed to George’s
departure from the Nation. Some
Kenyatta sycophants – perhaps
allied to Dr Njoroge Mungai
– had heard of them and told the
Old Man that George Githii had
been “scheming” his death. Mungai’s partisans had a good reason
for hating Githii.
It stemmed from the extreme
one-sidedness with which his
newspaper reported a perennial rivalry between Mungai and
Charles Njonjo, the AttorneyGeneral, sometimes known as
“Sir Charles.”
The intriguing thing about it
was that Githii, Njonjo, Mungai and Kenyatta came from the
same political parish in Kiambu
District. Before joining the Nation, George had been Kenyatta’s private secretary. Did Githii
know something between Njonjo
and Mungai which the editor was
not sharing with his readers?
But the point is that, while
Njonjo was invariably reported
in the most brilliant light, what
the public read about Mungai
was certainly not. That was the
problem. Although an editor has
the right to take sides on any
issue, he is professionally called
upon to back up his position with
correct facts, accurate figures and
cogent argument.
Knowledge of my “canned” articles may have had something
to do with George being arrested
and held one day.
But only Githii could have been
intrepid enough to sue Bernard
Hinga, the police commissioner,
for “wrongful confinement.” The
court proceedings must have
been embarrassing to the government. Although the case was
withdrawn, only Mzee Kenyatta
could have ordered Githii to
pack it in.
However, the most probable
immediate cause of George’s departure from Nation House was
that he had been writing and
publishing some embarrassingly
adventurous, one-sided, almost
hysterical articles and editorials on such controversies as Israel, the Soviet Union, Shah Reza
Pahlavi’s Iran and the leader of
the Bohra community.
Much cooler headed and hardnosed was Hilary Ng’weno, the
Nation’s first indigenous editorin-chief . It appears that Hilary
and the Aga Khan had been at
Harvard together. Hilary might
have impressed the future Ismaili chief through a series of cyclostyled newsletters to all African students in the United States.
At any rate, the Aga Khan’s new
newspaper in Nairobi latched
onto a man still only in his twenties when he returned to Kenya
in 1964. But, by the time I joined
Nation House in 1966, Hilary had
resigned to return to Harvard for
courses in filming and international affairs (where, he once told
me, Henry Kissinger was one of
his lecturers).
Ten years later, however – after
he came back from Cambridge,
Acclaimed by many of his staff as the best
hands-on editor the Nation ever had, he
could report stories, correct copy, write
editorials and lay out pages, all apparently
at the same time. He led the news operation at a difficult time, even spending
time in custody.
1981- 1983
The Stormy Petrel of Nation newspapers, he campaigned courageously
against corruption and denounced
moves to bring in preventive detention, but his erratic decisions on some
political issues embarrassed the company, leading to his departure.
1978 - 1981
1968 - 1972
George Githii
Peter Mwaura
Perceptive, socially conscious and academically gifted, he assumed the editorship at a difficult time. State authorities
had the Nation group in its sights and
there were changes at executive management level. He resigned in 1983.
1983 - 1991
The first Kenyan editor, appointed
when the Nation was little more than
three years old, changed the newspaper’s Eurocentric approach to international news coverage and ensured
it reflected the African political and
economic concerns.
DAILY NATION
George Mbugguss
One of the Nation’s pioneers, he rose
from Taifa reporter to Taifa editor and
steered the Kiswahili daily along a steady
path, fully earning his promotion to the
new position of Group Managing Editor.
He held the job successfully until his retirement in 1991.
1991 - 2009
Hilary Ng’weno
1965 - 1968 & 1972 - 1977
1964 - 1965
X | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
Wangethi Mwangi
Mwangi succeeded Mbugguss and
steered the papers through political
turbulence and an era of technological
revolution. He was appointed Editorial
Director until his retirement and replacement by Joseph Odindo.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XI
DAILY NATION
Going places and making
the right connections
By JOHN FOX
F
reda, the taxi driver, picked
me up to take me to the airport.
‘So where are you going this
time, Mr John?’ she asked.
‘Vietnam,’ I replied.
‘Oh, so you are going to the
war!’ she said.
And that was the starter for
my piece on that trip. Especially when, while I was in Hanoi
that time, an article appeared
in the local paper claiming that
Vietnam had become the safest
tourist destination in the whole
world. There was the connection
I was looking for.
I’m a very lucky guy. Over the
last 24 years, my consultancy job
has taken me to Asia, to many
countries in Africa – and to every
district in Kenya. When I am not
travelling I can always find a new
restaurant, an art exhibition, or
an event in Nairobi like the Concours d’Elegance or the Shaggy
Dog Show to write about.
But when I’m writing about
somewhere outside Kenya, the
challenge is how to make it relevant to Kenyan readers. Somehow, there has to be a reference
back to home. Just as Freda said.
It was back in the late 1980s
that George Mbugguss, then the
Nation’s Group Managing Editor, encouraged me to write for
the paper. One of the most memorable, interviews was with Mr
Kenneth Matiba about his plans
to climb Mount Everest.
Matiba put his love of mountains down to his Outward Bound
When I am not
travelling, I
write on subjects such as
the Concours
d’Elegance.
JOAN PERERUAN
climb on Mount Kilimanjaro
when he was an Alliance High
schoolboy. He also told me about
the character assessment given
by the expedition leader:
“Kenneth, you are a very strong
boy. You were the first to the summit. Well done! But there is one
criticism I have to make – you forgot about all those weaker brethren struggling up behind you.”
“That was so true,” Matiba said.
“And it is still so true. These days
when I am discussing with my
colleagues, I am thinking, planning – and I realise that they are
struggling up miles behind me…”
At the time, he was a member of
President Moi’s Cabinet.
I was told that, in the months
leading up to the first multi-party
elections, at an editors’ meeting,
George suggested that I should
be asked to write some ‘colour
pieces’ about the campaigns.
‘But George,’ someone said, ‘I
think John would prefer to keep
his work permit.’
But George did inveigle me
into writing about the Safari
Rally – despite my protestations
that I knew nothing about rallying. Less than a year later, I was
amused to see in the by-line of an
Indian newspaper that had reprinted one of my Safari stories
that I was ‘East Africa’s motor
sports expert’.
Nevertheless, when George
offered me the choice of being
the Motoring or Travel Correspondent for the Sunday Nation
I quickly deferred to Gavin Bennett’s much greater knowledge
– and wit – about cars.
My first Going Places pieces
were describing a hotel in terms
of its facilities, prices and how to
get there. Until I got a different
kind of encouragement from Bernard Nderitu, then the Editor of
the Sunday Nation.
One evening, when I was sitting having a beer on the terrace
of the Castle Hotel in down-town
Mombasa, I saw this girl. She was
wearing a black buibui. She was
walking up and down the pavement outside the terrace. I was
watching her and wondering
what she was doing – until a car
drew up, the window was wound
down, and the girl leaned inside
to negotiate terms.
That was the encounter around
which I made an impressionistic
piece about how it was to be sitting on the terrace of the Castle
Hotel and watching the after
dark life of Mombasa’s Moi Avenue.
‘I like that,’ Bernard Nderitu
said. ‘That’s how Going Places
should be.’ And that’s the advice
I’ve tried to follow for all of twenty something years.
My first Going Places pieces were describing a hotel
in terms of its facilities, prices and how to get there.
Until I got a different kind of encouragement from
Bernard Nderitu, then the Editor of the Sunday
Nation
REFLECTIONS
Pride of place on
the world stage
T
he Nation was
founded by His
Highness the Aga
Khan as a voice for
the majority of Kenyans who
clamoured for independence.
After Uhuru, the Nation became an effective voice of the
people. I must pay tribute to
the founder, and equally important to successive managements for steering the
company to become the undisputed media organization
in East Africa.
Indeed, the story of the Nation has become synonymous
with the story of Kenya being
agemates as Kenya attained
independence three years
after our first newspaper
rolled of the presses.
Today, though media freedom is perennially under
threat, the situation is much
better than it was in the sixties, and certainly better than
most African countries. As we
celebrate 50 years, the biggest
factor in the Nations success
is that the founders were genuine in their desire to have
an independent media group.
Over the years, the group has
established and maintained
very high ethical and governance standards. As we march
into the future, one promise I
would like to make on behalf
of all staff of the company is
that we shall stay true to our
founding mission of public
service journalism, and ensure that those who will be
managing the cerebrations 50
years from now, will have an
even better story.
To do this, we shall continue to live by our core values
of integrity, transparency and
balance in our reporting and
ensure that the Nation Media
Group will remain core to
positively transforming the
Africa society to take its pride
of place in the world stage on
social, economic and political areas.
To achieve this, we shall
continue to rely on the dedication and commitment of
our staff that I take this opportunity to salute. The same
goes for past members of staff
who remain extended members of the NMG family.
As we match forth to realize our dream of being the
media of Africa for Africa, we
shall remain focused on what
is important for Africa. It is
with this in mind that as part
of our cerebrations, we decided to sponsor and host the
Pan Africa Media Conference
so that we could get the members of the fourth estate in
one room and reflect on our
past performance even as we
make promises for the future.
I would hope that this could
become a regular initiative
around Africa.
This future will however
not be handed to any media
on a silver platter. The media
landscape is changing rapidly and it is only those who
evolve faster than the change
who will succeed. To this end,
we shall continue to evaluate our traditional media
platforms and ensure they
remain relevant to an even
more demanding needs of our
readers and readers even as
we invest aggressively in new
media and new geographies.
Finally I would like to
thank everyone who has
helped Nation Media Group
to be what it is today.
Asanteni Sana!
XII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
REFLECTIONS
DAILY NATION
THE MEN WHO MAKE IT HAPPEN
Meet the editors
of Nation papers
MUTUMA MATHIU
Managing Editor
Daily Nation
I have edited many newspapers; none is like the Daily Nation. We do it with a fine blend
of love and violence. Love because this newspaper is our life,
our life’s work. Mario Garcia,
the newspaper designer, told us
once that modern editors are
just undertakers, washing and
preparing for burial the bodies
of their dead newspapers. But
we are not. We are guardians,
custodians of great institutions.
The Daily Nation will be there
for many years to come, we shall
hand it over to the next generation, and the one after, in good
shape.
Violence because we are such
a brutally efficient news operation. Our capacity to mobilize
coverage of a breaking story,
even for those of us who have
done it many times, is a marvelous spectacle. I only wish we
could work with the same efficiency in covering the small
story.
I edited my first newspaper, a
now-dead periodical called the
Nairobi Law Monthly, when I
was all of 25 years old. That, and
many other newspapers that I
have seen since, lacked the Nation’s clarity of values. When I
am confronted with a big news
decision, there is never an iota
of conflict in my soul, what my
duty is, what the Daily Nation
stands for, what I should do.
The Daily Nation stands for
the truth. Our methods might
not always be efficient and our
findings might not always be accurate. But there is no conflict,
at all, about our purpose and
motivation.
The Daily Nation stands with
Nicholas Muema
Managing Editor
Taifa Leo
Julius Maina
Managing Editor
Saturday Nation
As the Managing Editor of Taifa,
my main task is to select suitable content for publication
and determine the best ways of
projecting it in the paper so as
to meet circulation targets. It is
also my duty to ensure that the
paper is consistent in quality
and tone, and is consistent with
the company’s editorial policy.
I was appointed early last year
at a time when there was a
steady decline in circulation of
Taifa, hence the main task has
been to reverse the trend. The
figures have improved and stabilized.
For the period I have worked in
this position, it has been a daily
challenge to go to press without
either affecting one’s temper.
However, the challenges attached to this position give me
job satisfaction and justify my
pay at the end of the month.
It’s just over a year since I took
over as editor of the Saturday
Nation. It was not long before I
realized that Saturday Nation’s
main challenge was – and to
some extent remains – to pack
a bigger punch than just the
ground-breaking and highly
successful Saturday Magazine
insert. The magazine is still a big
pull but many will agree that the
Saturday Nation is also much
more these days – readers have
come to expect much more from
us after a series of major people stories and indepth special
reports. The most memorable
perhaps is the special pullout
on the 40th anniversary of Tom
Mboya’s assassination last July.
Thanks to great team work, we
covered an “old story” with refreshing new facts. The results:
A well-received newspaper and
even higher expectations.
JAINDI KISERO
Managing Editor Investigations and Economic affairs.
ERIC OBINO
Managing Editor
Sunday Nation
NICK WACHIRA*
Managing Editor,
The East African
My job involves investigating
and developing mostly business,
economic, enterprise issue-oriented stories. As a managing
editor, I get to oversee those stories as well as writing opinion
pieces. The biggest challenge is
lack of space for the stories. It’s
harder to sell a business story,
but it is certainly better now
than a few years back.
The fact that we even have a
full business publication on a
daily basis, is a great achievement for the group.
In the investigative reporting
that I do, you get to rub a lot of
people the wrong way. Stepping
on a few toes is part of the job
really.
In this business, some of your
best sources end up being disgruntled contractors who when
denied a tender, manage to find
information that leads you to
something.
Sunday Nation is Nation’s highest circulation Newspaper and
has been for a while. Taking
up this position, as the paper’s
managing editor comes with a
lot of expectation; my own expectation to keep the product
at its best and also that of the
team.
Sunday Nation has over the
years thrived on analyses on
the week’s stories and one of
the challenges is that an issue
deserving to be the main story
could be preempted by the other
publications on the market.
The task is to second-guess
the other publications on their
angle.
The best feeling for me is driving on the way to church and
see people with a copy, or to find
people discussing the news and
telling each other,” Its in today’s
Sunday Nation.” It is quite a feeling.
The East African targets a regional readership with a more
sophisticated taste in news that
cuts across the boarders and
as a publication we are able to
capture activity in the various
sectors and their implications.
It’s the first paper presidents in
the region would go for to get all
they need to know about what
is happening or going to happen. Business can pick it up and
be advised on whether to set
up shop in the region because
we give you the information
you need to know. To capture
the vast readership in different
culture zones, The EastAfrican
has to find a common ground
that would interest its target in
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and
even Rwanda.
The challenge has however
been to find a team from all the
represented countries but the
progress made so far is good.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XIII
DAILY NATION
DESIGN
2000s
Lou Silverstein
RED MEAT CAU
C
SES ANCER
New survey say
s it also leads to
heart diseases
and
1970s-1980s
Allen Armstrong
1960s
1990s
BACK PAGE
www. nation .co.ke
ON OTHER
PAGES
AKINYI IS BACK:
FIGHTING AND
KICKING AWAY
She announces her
return with dramatic
confrontation with
Chinedu. PAGE 3
Changing face of a friend
A
S THE FACE OF A
GOOD friend alters
over the years, so has
the face of the Nation changed. But like that same
friend, it has remained recognisable, wearing a warm smile that
makes it a welcome guest in so
many households.
The key has been to ensure
that the newspaper’s appearance
signals the quality of its content.
Several factors govern that.
First is the paper’s position in
the market: a paper for the working man or woman, a paper for
top decision makers, or a paper
for the family?
Another factor is size -- traditionally broadsheet for upmarket
and tabloid for racier stories and
faster consumption -- although
now boundaries have blurred,
with upmarket tabloids and the
occasional middle or downmarket broadsheet.
Yet another factor is the choice
of typefaces. That used to be easy:
tabloid and downmarket meant
chunky sans faces, broadsheet
and upmarket meant elegant
serif. That, too, has changed.
Now the best guide to market
position is story angle (people
or issues) and the degree of projection.
The very first Nation published on March 30, 1960, was
unashamedly tabloid, the face
of youth: friendly, urgent and
brash.
Its name was reversed in Italic capitals on the top left of the
front page with the space next to
it, known as the earpiece, used for
boxed reports, as the paper’s first
editor, former Fleet Street staffer
and later award-winning BBC TV
reporter John Bierman, adapted
what was known as freestyle design with dazzling effect.
Freestyle presents stories as
pieces of a jigsaw, offering a strict
hierarchy on each page with the
text interlocking, and leading the
eye from one report to the next.
Bierman’s design, revolutionary in East Africa, was a winner.
One innovation was a cartoon on
the leader page (Page 4 in those
days) with the paper’s opinion,
the leader or editorial, boxed
beneath.
The Nation retained the Bierman look when in October of
1960 the Sunday paper was
joined by the Daily Nation, the
masthead initially stacked in two
lines still within the seal.
Eventually the name of the
paper became one line, still as a
reverse and it remained that way
until the first major revamp of
the design, which came in 1978.
The brief to produce a new
look for the Daily Nation, more
in keeping with the emergence
of an African middle class , fell
in 1978 to Allen Armstrong, the
paper’s chief sub editor. He did
the Nation proud, swapping
the loud Futura and Gill Sans
headline typefaces for the more
upmarket serif face of Century
Schoolbook.
The masthead changed as well,
to Clarendon, no longer reversed
and with what became the trademark style of having the word
Daily in upper and lower case
(like this text) lined up with the
top of the much larger word NATION in capital letters.
It was a brilliant mix, and the
British trade paper for journalists, the UK Press Gazette, was
quick to admire it, commenting:
“It is an offset litho sheet which
for clarity, colour and crispness
surpasses many of our own offset
publications.” It was the friendly
face of a friend who was beginning to mature.
The next main change came
from British designer, Jeannette
Collins, whokept the main faces,
tightening the Clarendon masthead and increasing the size of
the word Daily. A new slogan
was introduced: The newspaper
that serves the nation.
The main change was to make
the pages modular, a style in
which all the headlines, pictures
and text of one story are contained within rectangles which
sit alongside or above and below
each other.
The Collins revamp stayed valid
until 2001, when the vastly experienced American, Lou Silver-
stein,
who
had
r e -
NAI ROB I, WED
NES DAY, APR
IL 1, 200 9
No. 16116
KSh35/00 (TSh8
00/00
: USh1,500/00)
Land of the dyin
g
FA MI NE
In Kajiado, a cow
sel
water wars and ls for a paltry Sh300. In Ijara,
in Baringo peop
there are
le live on wild
berries
2000s
Palmer
Watson
THE HAGUE VOWS
TO ACT SWIFTLY
Special advisor
to
chief prosecutor
warns that they
are ready to mov
e
in immediately.
PAGE
4
KENYA BEGINS
CRICKET CONTEST
Tikolo to
lead team
in race
for 2010
World Cup.
PAGE 59
By FRANK WHALLEY
premature dea
ths.
∆
Jeannette
Collins
John Bierman
, SAYS STUDY
To comment on
these
and other stories
in the
Daily Nation go
to:
www.nation.co.ke
NEWS 2-9, 31-35,
A pictorial mis
sion to
little explored
poc
drought-striken kets of
Kenya,
place of hopele
ssn
misery and dea ess,
th
land that has cea — a
sed to
support life
Pages 14,15&16
BACK | OPINION
10-11
|
LETTERS 12 | INTE
RNATIONAL
Ms Adey Sugal,
relief food at a 70, waits for
point in Athey distribution
ley
Garissa Distric in Dujis,
t on Sunday.
Photos/WILLIAM
OERI
18-23 | BUSIN
ESS 24-30 |
SPORT 59-63
Pay your Ele
ctricity Bill
at any Equit
ATM, Point
y Bank Branc
of Sale, or ou
h,
r
Ea
zzy 24/7
Mobile Bank
ing Service.
shaped the New York
Times, took things in hand.
The Silverstein look was
launched on June 30, 2001. The
main headline face harped back
to Armstrong’s design with a version of Century, this time ITC
Century, squeezed to 70 per cent
of its normal width to give, as Silverstein said, “more pep.”
The titlepiece was, importantly, still Clarendon although the
word Daily became even larger
and now sat on the bottom of
the line next to NATION, still
in caps.
There were further (and controversial) changes to the masthead in the Saturday Nation and
the Sunday Nation, where the titles were double-decked with Saturday and Sunday on top .
This was a friendly face with
the self-confident smile of successful middle age.
Silverstein’s look for the Nation
lasted four years, until 2006
when, faced by rapidly updated
opposition newspapers, another
redesign was needed.
This time the experts were the
Scottish firm of Palmer Watson,
a new but respected team that
went on to redesign Le Monde
among many other famous titles.
Ally Palmer and Terry Watson
took the paper further upmarket, dramatically widening the
distance in quality between the
Nations and any opposition.
Today’s paper might not immediately look like the edtion that
launched a legend back in March
1960, but the family resemblance
is still strong.
Frank Whalley is a former Nation training editor, resident in
Nairobi and specialising in reporting on the fine arts.
It was a brilliant mix, and the British trade
paper for journalists, the UK Press Gazette,
was quick to admire it, commenting: “It is an
offset litho sheet which for clarity, colour and
crispness surpasses many of our own offset
publications
XIV | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
HUMOUR
The man who made the nation laugh
Mutahi’s
satire was
unforgiving,
and his family was the
cast in his
column.
By GAKIHA WERU
Sometime at the beginning of
the 1980s, a master’s degree
student at the University of
Nairobi saw an advertisement in
Nation Newspapers, announcing vacancies for sub-editors.
He applied and was hired. “I
was under the impression that
a sub-editor was a pretty senior
fellow. I was terribly mistaken,’’
the student recalled years later.
The student was the late Wahome Mutahi. Over the next
two decades he was to tantalise
readers with a rare and unique
brand of humour.
Through his column, “Whispers,” Mutahi became an integral part of the Nation stable
and the Sunday Nation was
incomplete without an article
from “the son of the soil.”
So huge was his following
that when Mutahi left to join
the competition, he was hired
right back, the company having found that when he moved
house, thousands of readers
moved with him.
His satire was unforgiving
and his family members were
permanent caricatures in his
column. There was his mother,
Appep, his wife, Thatcher, Whiz
Junior aka the domestic thug
and daughters Pajero and the
Investiment.
So much was his family part of
NMG ARCHIVES
his satire, his wife Ricarda Njoki
recalled later, that at Murang’a
district hospital where she
worked, few people knew her
real name. They all called her
Thatcher.
Mutahi laughed at himself, at
those around him and at society
in general. In turn, Sunday Nation readers laughed with him
and loved him too, “I can laugh
at anything with the exception
of God and disability,” he once
said.
His satire and did not the spare
the political class either. Using
analogies, former President Moi
became the “main headmaster.”
Mutahi’s pen was at its sharpest at a time when the Moi
regime could not countenance
any form of criticism. It was
therefore not entirely surprising
when Mutahi was arrested and
jailed on trumped up charges
in 1986.
He was banging away on his
typewriter at old Nation House
in Tom Mboya Street when the
Special Branch officers walked
in and demanded to see him.
After a brief chat at reception,
he went back to his desk and
collected his jacket. Out in the
street he was surrounded by
other officers and led away and
nobody knew his whereabouts
for days on end.
Like many other people who
were jailed for sedition at that
time, Mutahi was to appear in
court one day late in the afternoon. With him was his young
brother, Njuguna Mutahi. As
everybody did in those days,
they pleaded guilty to charges
of sedition.
It was common knowledge
that people who admitted such
charges had pleas of guilty
beaten out them at Nyayo
House. Mutahi’s book, Three
Days On The Cross, tells of his
experience at the hands of his
torturers.
Mutahi was a top feature writer
who inspired scores of journalist and personally mentored
many of them including this
writer.
He was also a great thespian
and playwright. He penned
many plays, among them Mu-
gathe Mbogothi and Ngoma Cia
Aka. He also has several books
to his name.
When Mutahi died in July 2003,
the country was stunned. It was
only then that it became clear
that through his column, he had
touched a generation in a very
special way.
His death, too, was tragic. He
had gone on March 7 to Thika
District hospital for what
was to be a minor operation.
Something went terribly wrong
and Mutahi went into a coma
from which he never woke up.
He died three months later at
Kenyatta National Hospital.
The Sunday paper seduced readers
with its verve, but the daily limped
The Aga
Khan, on a
1961 visit to
Nation House,
discusses
news issues
with the Editorial team.
askance at The Nation’s politics,
they were quickly seduced by its
energy, liveliness and humour
and the fresh and aggressive
approach it demonstrated towards reporting public affairs.
The March 20 launch issue sold
17,500 copies and quickly the figure soared to 24,000, reaching
30,000-plus in August.
This dizzying success owed
much to coups such as a world
exclusive in June, headlined,
“The old man who waits at Lodwar.” This was a spread of photographs of Jomo Kenyatta, the
man the colonial government
vainly hoped had been forgotten,
then in detention in the Northern Frontier town of that name.
“He digs his arid little garden,” a
caption said, “he lounges with his
books and newspapers, listens to
the ever-present radio – and
waits for the day of his return.”
The coverage electrified Africans,
angered the colonial government
and infuriated many settlers who
blamed Kenyatta for the activities of the Mau Mau.
Exacerbating national resentments at the time was a widespread drought. The Nation reported in July of 1960 that scores
of cattle had died and the maize
crop had failed. Farmers sold
their stock at giveaway prices or
paid 50 per cent more for feeding
barley. Said one ruined Rift Valley farmer, “If you listen to some
of the African politicians, every
European farmer is sitting on
the verandah drinking whisky.
If we are not brutal, we are rich.
Tell them to come out here and
have a look.” It was not difficult
for the ill-intentioned to descry
a racial angle in the most mundane of happenings and reporters were warned to be vigilant in
their choice of words and use of
phraseology. But one event, all
but forgotten now though with
international dimensions at the
time, was unavoidably race-centred. This was the case of Britishborn Peter Poole, a 28-year-old
engineer, sentenced to death for
shooting dead his African house
servant, Kamawe Musunge.
His defence argued that Poole’s
wife and two children had been
stoned by a group of Africans and
he shot Musunge after the African threw stones at Poole’s dogs.
An appeal was rejected by
the Privy Concil in London and
a plea for clemency was turned
down by Kenya’s Governor,
Sir Patrick Renison. Poole was
hanged on August 8, 1960, the
only white man executed in colonial Kenya for killing an African.
The Nation denounced suggestions that Poole’s execution was
“appeasement towards African
nationalist opinion.” It declared
in an editorial: “British law holds
rightly that the value of a white
man’s life is no more than that
of a black man. In this respect,
the forces of law and order have
acted with impartiality.”
If conditions within the East
African nations were superficially peaceful, underlying tensions
were constantly fuelled by turmoil beyond their frontiers. Independence in the former Belgian
Congo was followed immediately
by rioting, looting, mutiny, rape
DAILY NATION
50 GOLDEN YEARS XV
XVI | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
REFLECTIONS
DAILY NATION
MOTORING
IN AN ERA GONE BY
Driving into a past of empty
streets . . . and no matatus
By GAVIN BENNETT
F
Why our newspapers are
taking on a different role
Mr Joseph Odindo,
Editorial Director Nation
Media Group
F
or 50 years Nation
newspapers have
striven to uphold the
promise of that very
first issue - to become the
most reliable source of accurate news and essential information in the region.
And now the challenge has
grown to ensure our print,
broadcast, internet and mobile phone media become the
choice of the continent - the
media of Africa for Africa.
The Press is often thought of
as the watchdog that keeps
an eye on Government and
through its vigilance helps to
moderate public affairs.
Since before Uhuru the Nation has been present at every
major event in the country’s
proud history, recording, informing, explaining the news.
Whether the death of a President, a major disaster, the
passing of vital legislation or
a national debate - Nation
journalists have been there.
Now as the focus of breaking
news shifts to the electronic
media - radio, TV, the internet and our 6667 phone alerts
- newspapers are assuming a
different role.
The accent now is on what we
call Day Two, or Back Stories
-- expert reports that explain
what lies behind the news.
These put the day’s events
into context and help to provide a greater understanding of the bewildering pace
of change. Of course, it is not
only exemplary news coverage that has seen the Nation
grow from one Sunday newspaper into the largest media
house in East and Central
Africa. From a wafer thin
Kiswahili title beloved of nationalist Kenyans, the group
runs newspapers and broad-
cast stations in Uganda and
Tanzania and might soon
venture into Rwanda.
In half a century of writing
headlines, we have had our
share of disgrace and our moments of glory. We stood up
for Kenya’s independence,
championed the return of
multiparty democracy and exposed Goldenberg and Anglo
Leasing, along with countless
other injustices against our
nation.
Of course, people buy newspapers for many reasons.
Sometimes it is to read the
pioneering obituary pages, or
notices of college admissions
and new products.
Welcome, too, are advertisements for jobs or cars and
even pets.
All is grist to the mill; part
and parcel of a great daily
read. Perhaps the greatest
challenge yet faced by journalists across all our media
was the post election violence
that rocked Kenya following
the 2007 poll. It tested our
courage and impartiality, our
ability to stand back from the
turmoil and report without
bias. We triumphed in the
end, but learnt painful lessons along the way.
Any newsroom is a microcosm of the society it covers.
Just as our countrymen and
women were riven by conflicting loyalties, so divisions
crept into our newsrooms.
Yet it is immensely to the
credit of Nation group journalists that they were, finally,
able to put aside any differences and determine that
together their primary task
- in addition to reporting the
news - was somehow to help
heal the country; to bring
harmony where there was
discord.
I am proud to have been part
of that Nation team, and I am
even prouder now to lead it.
1960s vehicles cruised
on almost
empty streets
between low
rise buildings
and 10 cars
was considered a jam.
NMG ARCHIVES
ew things in life evoke past
eras quite so precisely and
powerfully as the car. The
imagery is so strong and clear
that movie makers can locate
their audience in time and place
with a single shot of cars on a
street.
So what would strike us most
— carwise — if we watched a film
clip of Nairobi on the day the
first copies of the Nation came
rattling off the presses in 1960?
It would be a cine film of course.
Video bado.
Obviously, all the vehicles
would be models from the 1950s,
cruising around on almost empty
streets between low-rise buildings (a queue of 10 cars was considered a traffic jam; the terms
“parking space” and “open road”
were things that actually existed,
rather than just being hoped for).
But beyond the most obvious
long-distance observations…
There would be no SUV’s, no
hatchbacks, and almost no pickups or matatus. The only 4WD
would be a Series II Land-Rover,
with its headlights still mounted
in the radiator grille (not out on
the wings). The biggest trucks
would be what we now call 7-tonners. And in these and any other
classes, there would not be a single vehicle from Japan (where
today 80 per cent of our road-fill
comes from).
Zoom in a little closer and there
would be more to surprise today’s
memory. All would be running
on crossply tyres (though radials
were about to arrive as the Michelin X, which everybody thought
needed to be pumped up more).
None would have door mirrors,
all the bumper bars would be
chrome plated, with over-riders
(and badges), the number plates,
fore and aft, were black with silver-grey lettering (mostly starting in the KC-KF range). Many
would have roofracks, sun visors
and mascots. The latest fad was a
little perspex gizmo mounted on
the front of the bonnet, billed as
a “fly deflector.”
To get in, each door would have
to be unlocked individually, and
once inside even the plushest
models would seem Spartan. No
seatbelts at all. Radios were optional extras. All windows were
wound by hand.
There were no buttons and ials
were few – speedo (in mph), temperature gauge (in Fahrenheit),
fuel gauge (in guesswork; the VW
Beetle didn’t even have one) and,
as an optional extra, a clock (in
loud ticks). Full stop. Gear shift
levers on the steering wheel were
common (so were bench seats)…
and often alone. There were no
combination lights-and-wipers
levers (those were push-pull buttons scattered randomly around
the unpadded dashboard; a twospeed wiper was something to
mention in adverts, intermittent
options were unheard of, and the
washer spray was a completely
separate item activated by a onesquirt-per-push manual pump).
The steering column did often
have a small second lever to make
the “trafficators” blink left or
right, and there were still plenty
of vehicles that did not have those
– instead, a little illuminated paddle swung out of the door pillar,
at the behest of a toggle switch
near the ashtray.
Gado: Every which way but loose
I
t is Pulitzer winner Dough Marlette who once
remarked: “Good cartoons are like visual rock
and roll. They hit you primitively and emotionally, turning you every which way but loose.”
Award winning Nation Cartoonist Godfrey Mwampembwa a.k.a Gado has been
rocking our world with good cartoons,
albeit controversial at times. But in between he has emerged as perhaps
one of the most outstanding African cartoonists in recent years. His
editorial cartoons have often rubbed
authorities the wrong way and entertained readers with the same zeal.
Gado picked the mantle from the likes
of Frank Odoi and Paul Kelemba who had
graced the editorial pages in the 80s and
has stuck like a permanent outcrop in
the op-ed pages of the Nation.
Born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
Gado joined Nation Editorial in 1992 as
a cartoonist after freelancing with Daily News, Business Times and the Express, all of Tanzania.
He has won several local awards. In 1996 he was
honored by the International Olympic Media Award
in Print Media and in 1999 was named Kenya Cartoonist of the Year. He has exhibited his works in
Tanzania, Kenya, France, Norway, Finland and Italy.
A painter in oils and watercolours, Gado is a member of Kenya Union of Journalists , the Association
of East African cartoonists , Cartoonists and Writers
Syndicate (C&W) and a Board Member of Cartoonist
Rights Network .
At the moment Gado is the most syndicated
political/editorial cartoonist in East and Central
Africa. His works have also been published in Le
Monde (France), the Washington Times (US), Des
Standard (Belgium) and Japan Times. He has published two books: Abunuswasi (1996) a short story
comic book and DEMOCRAZY! , a collection of his
editorial cartoons.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XVII
DAILY NATION
RECOLLECTIONS
We knew we were involved in something special
By JOHN McHAFFIE
V
isitors to today’s Nation
Centre cannot fail to be
impressed by its grandeur, looking as it does every
inch the flagship headquarters
of a large and dynamic media
group.
But, whenever I walk through
its St Peter’s-like doors and into
its marble halls, I allow myself
a rueful smile as my mind goes
back over three decades to a
time when Nation newspapers
were put together in far humbler surroundings.
The old Nation House, opposite
the fire station in Tom Mboya
Street, was a very different
proposition.
The long, two-storey building
had few of the features of its illustrious successor. There was
no need for snazzy TV or radio
studios, since liberalisation of
the airwaves was still years
away. No need either for fancy
reception areas or elaborate security desks to screen visitors,
since terrorism had not yet
visited us and passers-by could,
and did, wander onto the editorial floor after the most cursory
of checks.
The newsroom itself exuded
a noisy vibrancy, missing now
in the almost monastic silence
of today’s push-button, cyber
journalism. It was an “old
school” newsroom, with news
agency machines chattering
by the windows, reporters
pounding manual typewriters,
chained to their desks, and all
around the shuffling of short
typewritten pages known as
“takes” as sub-editors on the
news, sports and features desks
prepared stories for the next
day’s paper.
But, if our editorial surroundings were workaday, we still
knew that we were pioneers,
involved in something special.
Our photo-typesetting technology and web-offset printing
process were way ahead of
London’s mighty Fleet Street.
The ability to print full-colour
pictures was one such innovation, although (at least at
The newsroom
at old Nation
House on Tom
Mboya Street
Nairobi in the
early years.
first) considerable preparation
time was required. A full-colour
picture tended to appear in the
features pages, which were
planned days ahead. Our first
opportunity to put colour to
the test was the crash of a Boeing 747 of Lufthansa Airlines in
Nairobi. Over time we got better
and faster, and colour became
a more regular occurrence,
eventually paving the way for a
triumphant double-page “Final
Farewell” edition for President
Kenyatta’s funeral.
But newspapers, perhaps more
than any other enterprise, are a
people business, a team endeavour, and when I look back, it is
the people who spring to mind:
µ Joe Rodrigues, editor supreme,
the rock around which the Na-
tion swirled – known as “Joe”,
because his original European
colleagues could not get their
tongues around Jawaharlal.
µ Irrepressible Joe Kadhi of the
booming laugh who now passes
on his vast experience to a new
generation of journalists as a
professor at USIU in Nairobi.
µ George Mbugguss and Bob
Muthusi, who in the early days
steered Taifa Leo, to its pre-eminent position in Swahili publishing.
µ Polymath and resident lexicographer Phillip Ochieng, who
succeeded me as chief sub, and
is still strutting his stuff in the
Sunday Nation.
And then there were the young
lions of the time, who became
the grizzled veterans of later
times — Wangethi Mwangi,
Joseph Odindo, Tom Mshindi.
After me, other chief subs were:
Phillip Ochieng, Ali Hafidh,
Wangethi Mwangi, Joseph
Odindo, Kibe Kamunyu, Julius
Maina, Pamela Makotsi, Timothy
Wanyonyi and presently, Mbugua Ng’ang’a.
XVIII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
CHRONOLOGY
DAILY NATION
Briton sentenced to death for killing a Kenyan
and death and the country became a byword and a caution for
those who feared African nations
were not yet equipped to handle
independence. Kenya’s Elspeth
Huxley, a writer and thinker on
Africa, said in a Nation interview
that democracy would never
work on the continent. Predicting a series of African dictators,
she declared, “It is not possible
to have a Western-style democracy in a country divided deeply
on racial, linguistic, cultural and
religious lines.”
The Daily Nation hit the streets
on Monday, October 3, 1960, repeating the company’s promise
to “do our utmost to help Kenya
and the other East African territories make the perilous transition to African majority rule
and full independence as peacefully and constructively as possible.” Cautiously, it mentioned no
time frame but pledged to act as
a watchdog for the common man,
“guarding the liberty of the individual against bureaucracy and
totalitarianism, however they
may manifest themselves.” In repeating its commitment to Afri-
can majority rule, the newspaper
referred not only to Kenya but to
all of East Africa, a regional perspective which, at the Aga Khan’s
behest, the company’s newspapers were to maintain throughout their history. For many years,
this stance flew in the face of
cool if not disdainful attitudes
towards regional co-operation
by the governments themselves,
fired as they were by the euphoria
of national sovereignty.
The colonial power had been
an enthusiastic proponent of
common services, creating such
institutions as East African
Railways and Harbours and the
East African Currency Union.
In 1961, an attempt was made
to harmonise the economies of
Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika/
Tanzania when the East African
High Commission became the
East African Common Services
Organisation, which in turn
became the East African Community in 1967. Due to differing
political philosophies, this entity
effectively stopped functioning
in 1972 and collapsed in 1977.
It was revived in 2000 with the
intention of paving the way to
a full-scale federation comprising Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania,
The Daily Nation hit the streets on
Monday, October 3, 1960, repeating
the company’s promise to “do our
utmost to help Kenya and the other East
African territories make the perilous
transition to African majority rule and
full independence
Above left:
Delegates
from left,
Jean Marie
Seroney,
Ronald
Ngala,
and, far
right, Ronald Ngala.
Above: A
procession
on the way
to the Uhuru
celebrations.
Right: President Jomo
Kenyatta
chairs his
first Cabinet
meeting. On
his right is
Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga
Odinga.
Rwanda and Burundi. The five
members would effectively become a single state within the
African Union, hopefully by 2013.
Despite a long history of federal
failures, the Nation’s faith in a
strong regional presence never
wavered and year after year it
called for new efforts towards
integration.
Unlike its Sunday sibling,
the Daily Nation’s growth was
to prove slow and painful. The
choice of a launch date, for example, was questionable. A
Monday paper has to carry news
from Sunday and there is often
not much happening on the traditional day of rest. So it was to
prove on the weekend of October 3, 1960 and the paper’s own
launch was promoted to second
lead on Page One. The main story
told of the return home of the
Sultan of Zanzibar after hospitalisation in Europe, describing him
as “fit as a fiddle.” He died within
weeks. Writing 25 years later for
the paper’s silver jubilee souvenir, editor Bierman recalled, “It
was not, let us be frank, a very
good issue…and it went down
rather like a lead balloon.” The
print order for the launch was
15,500 and it sold 13,000. Sales
dropped even further when the
curiosity factor abated and come
November were down to 12,000.
A letter from a reader said, “The
mountain has laboured and
brought forth a mouse.”
Stung, the newsroom fought
back. Through initiative and
hard work and driven by Bierman, reporters brought in a series of exclusive front page stories on widely different topics
which kept people talking about
the paper, even if not enough
were buying it. “It was hard and
often heart-breaking work,” Bierman recalled, but it did finally
pay off. Putting sales back at a
modest 200 per week, circulation
rose slowly to a point of viability.
But it took more than five years
to cross the 20,000 barrier, which
50 GOLDEN YEARS XIX
DAILY NATION
Path to Uhuru full of problems
Above: Jomo
Kenyatta signs
the instruments
of independence;
Right, Miss Uhuru,
Elizabeth Mumbi,
in a recent photo,
with a picture
of herself from
1963. At left, how
the Nation carried
the story of Kenya’s independence
celebrations in
the Friday edition
of December 13,
1963. The paper
cost 30 cents.
the Sunday Nation achieved in
four months. Inevitably, what
mostly filled the new newspaper’s columns was politics.
What disappointed the Nation’s
liberal-minded young journalists was the critical attitude of
the emerging class of African
politicians when hardline political in-fighting began to dominate the national scene. While
not being so starry-eyed as to expect gratitude for their support
for independence, they were dismayed that such a positive stance
seemed to count for nothing and
motives of ill-will were imputed
to them when they reported contentious but valid issues. Bierman shot back: “It is right and
proper that Nation Newspapers
should report and comment on
these differences (within Kanu).”
It would, he warned, continue to
do so.
It was the Nation’s stubborn
adherence to investigating and
reporting all sides of an issue
that was to gain it a reputation
At heart was a failure by politicians to understand the difference
between being independent and being hostile to government.
Almost to a man they hewed to the Biblical adjuration, “He who is
not with us is against us.”
from knee-jerk commentators of
being an anti-government newspaper. At heart was a failure by
politicians to understand the
difference between being independent and being hostile to
government. Almost to a man
they hewed to the Biblical adjuration, “He who is not with us is
against us.” The price for maintaining its integrity was a deeply
uncomfortable life for the Nation
and its staff for virtually all of its
50 years to date.
The path to independence was
cluttered with problems but in
retrospect its achievement was
inevitable. In January 1960, some
50 Kenya delegates attended the
first constitutional conference at
Lancaster House in London. Fly-
ing together on the same airplane
were a group of African nationalists including Mboya, Odinga
and Daniel Arap Moi – but not
Kenyatta, who was still in detention; moderate Europeans led by
Michael Blundell; and a party of
settlers headed by Group Captain
“Puck” Briggs. A proposed multiracial constitution was accepted
by Blundell and, reluctantly, by
the Africans, but rejected by the
settlers. Clearly more talks were
needed and the Kenyans flew
back to Nairobi, where a settler threw 30 silver sixpences at
Blundell and cried that he was
“a Judas.”
When a second round of talks
took place in London in 1962,
Kenyatta, now freed from all re-
strictions, led the African delegation. Kanu’s men pressed for
centralism while an opposition
African group, the Kenya African
Democratic Union led by Ronald
Ngala, argued for regionalism or
majimbo. A framework constitution was eventually mapped out
and taken back to Nairobi to be
refined. A new Governor, Malcolm MacDonald, threw out the
planned timetable for an election in the autumn of 1963 and
independence by the end of 1964.
Kenyans were just too impatient,
he said. Elections were set instead for May 1963, internal selfrule on June 1 and independence
in December. MacDonald organised a grinding series of meetings
by African ministers to finalise
the constitution -- three sessions
a day, three days a week. A 248page constitution was finally
agreed and tabled as an Order in
Council. It met the needs of the
day but was to be amended many
times in the coming years.
In the election, Kanu won twothirds of the vote and formed a
strong government with Kenyatta
as prime minister. The Nation, in
a landmark decision, printed the
headline, “Kanu for Kenya,” the
first and so far the only time it
has endorsed a political party.
It argued that Kanu had more
talent in its ranks than Kadu and
that a centralised form of government was preferable to regional
rule. Typically, it also claimed
March, 1960. Kanu would be
better at achieving federation in
East Africa – an argument that
was to be decisively disproved
by the party’s lukewarm attitude
to federation. Finally on DecemCONTINUED ON PAGE 21
XX | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
RECOLLECTIONS
LEFT:
Vidyarthi’s
famous
shot of a fit
and lively
Kenyatta
jumping over
a stream in
the Maasai
Mara. Behind
him is his then
secreatary,
J.M. Kariuki.
Vidyarthi: Pioneer
photojournalist
COURTESY OF A. VIDYARTHI
The Nations’ photo aces
The police followed them there and after the
door to the house was broken down by firemen,
a police inspector shot himself in the foot
P
hotography has played a major
role in Nation journalism.
Among key photographers was
YAHYA MOHAMED, who worked for
Nation between 1971 and 1992.
An amusing but also tragic assignment for him was one of a robbery
from the Queensway branch of Barclays. After robbers took the money
and fled, he recalls, they took refuge
in a house at Uhuru estate in the city’s
Eastlands.
The police followed them there and
after the door to the house was broken down by firemen, a police inspector shot himself in the foot.
“The inspector was drawing a gun
from his holster but it went off and a
bullet went through his foot. I got the
picture, and earned myself an immediate promotion,” Yahya recalled. The
robbers were caught.
1960 - 1965
1988 - 2001
Yahya Mohamed
SAM OUMA, worked for Nation
between 1981-1988 and then for a second stint between 1990 and 1998. He
Members of the Nairobi Press Corps cameramen, line up
behind President Kenyatta at the 1966 Limuru Kanu Conference. Directly behind the President is Nation cameraman Anil
Vidyarthi. Second from right is Nation photographer Akhtar
Hussein. It is not recorded who took this picture.
Joseph Thuo
remembers the 1982 coup attempt as
one of the most memorable and also
traumatic times. He was with a neighbour of his near the Nyayo National
stadium when a shot rang out. His
neighbour fell dead. He had been
shot by security forces.
Sam says he had warned him that
leaving the house would be dangerous, but his neighbour did not listen. The 1998 Nairobi bomb blast
will touched him in a personal way.
He says that five minutes before the
bomb went off, he had received a mysterious call in the office from a man
with an Arab accent, who said that “a
building in Nairobi will dance today.”
YUSUF WACHIRA worked for Nation from 1988 to 2001 and remembers the day when Alexander Muge,
the Anglican Bishop of Eldoret’s
church service in Kirinyaga was disrupted by a chief who wanted to slap
the bishop. The congregation booed
the chief out of the church leading to
riots in Kirinyaga town.
Other notable photographers have
included Joseph Odiyo, who has since
died, and Joseph Thuo.
– Compiled by Kibe Kamunyu
1981 -1988 & 1990 - 1998
B
orn in Nairobi in 1944,
Anil Vidyarthi began
taking pictures with
a Box Brownie camera at the
age of 16. Anil’s father, G.L.
Vidyarthi, had established
Kenya’s first anti-colonial
newspaper in 1933 as well as
a host of vernacular newspapers.
It was at his father’s pr
inting press that Anil would
watch his cousin, photojournalist Priya Ramrakha,
processing pictures of leaders like Jomo Kenyatta, Tom
Mboya and Daniel arap Moi.
Anil bought his first Nikon
camera in 1962. He was
working then in a dark room
on River Road. On the recommendation of reporter
Chhotu Karadia, Nation editor John Bierman agreed to
bring Vidyarthi on board.
There were few photojournalists in those days, and
most photographers plied
their trade in Nairobi’s studios. Caleb Okwera, who
worked alongside Vidyarthi,
was the only black African
photographer at the Nation
before independence.
Vidyarthi’s first assignment was to photograph a
derailed train near Nairobi.
He recalls: “We jumped on
a plane to get an overhead
shot. I started shooting with
a camera provided by the
Nation and the film ran out
after two exposures. To save
film, photographers would
leave unexposed frames in
the camera. I had no idea
that was the case when I
started, but luckily I still got
the shot!”
Vidyarthi became a staff
photographer at Nation in
1963 and covered Kenya’s Independence celebrations in
December of that year. Many
Kenyans will remember his
photo of Jomo Kenyatta
jumping over a stream in the
Maasai Mara game reserve
on his way to greet American astronauts vacationing
in Kenya.
“Before the astronauts arrived, President Kenyatta
and politician JM Kariuki
were taking a walk near a
small stream,” Vidyarthi
says. “Then Kenyatta jumped
over it. I had three cameras
around my neck and quickly,
without focusing, clicked the
shutter a few times. There
were 30 photographers waiting, but I was the only one
who got the shot. The picture was on the front page
of Nation the next day and
Kenyatta ordered hundreds
of prints to send to leaders
around the world whenever they inquired about his
health.”
Vidyarthi left Nation in
1967 for a brief stint in the
printing industry and then
joined Derby College of Art
in England to pursue a twoyear degree in photography
in 1969. He moved to New
York in 1971 and found casual work at Life magazine.
He returned home in January1972 and took up work
in the printing industry. In
the early 1980s, he returned
briefly to photography and
covered President Moi’s state
visit to India for Viva magazine. Anil is now the managing director of Colourprint
Limited printing press.
1971 - 1992
By SHRAVAN VIDYARTHI
Yusuf Wachira
Sam Ouma
50 GOLDEN YEARS XXI
DAILY NATION
Challenge to the constitution
1971: Uganda’s General
Idi Amin Dada
comes to power
through a military coup
1978: A front
and back spread
of Kenyatta’s
funeral.
Right: 1980/81:
It was a tragic
New year’s eve
when a powerful bomb ripped
through part
of the Norfolk
Hotel as guests
gathered for a
party.
Below Right:
1976: Israeli
hostage after
their release following a commando raid on
Entebbe.
Extreme Right:
1978: Daniel arap Moi
is sworn in as
Kenya’s second
president.
ber 12, 1963, the Union Jack was
lowered and Kenya’s new flag – a
shield and crossed spears on a
red, black and green background
– was raised in its place. The Nation’s front page declared “Kenya
Free!”
As the new government struggled to find its feet, so the Nation
began to flex its muscles, Michael
Curtis recalled: “We became the
first newspaper to distribute
nationwide from our presses in
Nairobi. We did what everyone
in Nairobi told me was impossible and ran our Land-Rovers the
whole of the 300 miles to Mom-
basa on what was then only a
murram road infested with wild
animals and subject to sudden
floods.” The Nation had become
a truly national newspaper and
it was clear the time was ripe to
appoint a Kenyan to lead the editorial team.
The Board’s choice was a Harvard graduate and a journalist who had already made his
mark as a feature writer, Hilary Ng’weno. The new editor
brought an African perspective
to reporting and writing, clearly
demonstrated by the upheaval in
the Congo following the murder
of Patrice Lumumba. As international news agencies focussed
their reports on the fate of white
missionaries, Ng’weno saw to
it that the slaughter of thousands of Congolese Africans was
brought to the attention of newshungry Kenyans.
In government circles there
were signs of the uncertainty
that affected many new nations
when its inexperienced politicians were suddenly handed
power. In the belief that newspapers should act as an arm of
development, the Information
Ministry tightened its grip on the
flow of government news, taking
control of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and changing its
name to the Voice of Kenya.
It also deported a number
of former colonial government
officers and foreign reporters,
the first journalist being Tony
Dunn, the Nation’s man in Dar
es Salaam. Dunn was originally
expelled by the government of
Tanzania, and thus automatically under a bilateral agreement,
by Kenya, too. His offence was
to report too accurately on African-on-Arab violence which had
flared on Zanzibar, and insurrection in the army on mainland
Tanzania. Military mutinies soon
flared in Kenya and Uganda, too,
but these were quelled with British military help. Embarrassing
as these incidents were for the
new nations, they served to illustrate the dangers of military
takeovers that were afflicting
many other newly independent
African nations at that time.
On the first anniversary of
independence, Kenya became a
Republic and Kenyatta its first
President. In a speech marking the occasion, he declared
that the independence constitution was “too rigid, expensive
and unworkable.” Kenyatta Day
– October 20 -- had already been
established to mark the arrest
and detention of Kenyatta and
his companions 12 years earlier.
The direction in which the country was heading was clearly elucidated on November 10, when
Ronald Ngala’s Kadu joined the
Kanu government and Kenya became a one-party state. The Ministry of Home Affairs was taken
from VP Oginga Odinga and
given to Daniel Arap Moi.
As the decade moved on, developments emerged which were to
become recurring motifs in the
Kenya story such as corruption
scandals, quarrels about free expression and constant scrapping
over political power.
When a maize shortage hit
the nation, an inquiry was ordered into suspected thievery
at a high level. There followed
scandal at the West Kenya Marketing Board, with allegations of
a cheque being signed for a Mercedes car and outrageous payments to MPs. The entire board
was sacked and staff suspended.
Assurances of Press freedom by
Attorney-General Charles Njonjo
were received with reserve by
the Nation and an editorial said,
“While newspapers understand
the problem which the Government faces, it is only fair that
the Government and politicians
should understand the troubled
political waters through which
newspapers must walk.” When
in May 1966 Kenyatta named
Joseph Murumbi as Vice-President, Odinga resigned and soon
afterwards announced formation
of the Kenya People’s Union with
28 other dissident legislators.
Since MPs joining a new party
were required to resign from
Parliament, a “little general election” was held for 30 seats. The
result was a major victory for
Kanu, which won 21 of the available seats. Said Kanu secretarygeneral Mboya: “The KPU is dead
and the voters buried it.”
The Sixties ended in darkness.
On July 5, 1969, Tom Mboya, aged
38, was shot dead coming out of
a chemist’s shop barely 100 yards
from Nation House. The Nation
described it as “the most horrific
1975
Stories the editors
would prefer to forget
T
he success story of any media house is
inevitably interspersed with the sort
of failures and blunders which make
those discreet, bottom-of-the-page “Corrections and Clarifications” required reading
by journalists and consumers alike.
Nation Media Group has been no exception. Mostly, these blunders just made the
newspapers look silly. On the lighter side,
Daily Nation librarian ANNIEL NJOKA recalls two such stories:
Driving in reverse claim
This saga started in 1985 when Eric Awori,
a scion of East Africa’s well-known Awori
family and a Rugby player with Kenya Harlequins, was reported to have driven a car in
reverse all 500kms from Mombasa to Nairobi. It eventually turned out it was all false.
He was arrainged in court on fraud charges
and fined.
MARCH
GOOFS & GAFFES
XXII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
JULY
1969
He did not milk an elephant
In November 1998 a small news item was
turned into a full-page feature.
Then the international news agencies
picked it up, and an unknown 22-year old
Kenyan became a global celebrity for the
amazing feat of milking an elephant, a wild
one, not a tame creature in a zoo.
Mr Peter Baraza, however, was not impressed with all the fame that transformed
him into an instant celebrity. On leaving
hospital, Mr Baraza filed a lawsuit against
the Nation for carrying false reports and
was awarded a handsome sum.
DAILY NATION
JM Kariuki’s murder: Reflections
I remember the initial shock and
disbelief; the riots in the streets and
the open rebellion in Parliament
By MACHARIA GAITHO
T
he screaming Daily Nation headline that Kenyans woke up to one
morning in early March 1975
read, “JM in Zambia.”
If the headline was meant to
reassure Kenyans that all was
well after the popular maverick
MP had been reported missing,
it turned out to be a cruel joke.
For that very day, J.M. Kariuki’s
mutilated body was found at
the Nairobi City Mortuary,
tagged as an “unknown male
African”.
As the country struggled to
come to grips with the assassination of the fiery MP for
Nyandarua North and the government of President Kenyatta
reeled under the public anger,
the Nation Group hung its head
in shame.
The headline — and the entire story that recounted JM’s
friendship with Zambian Cabinet minister Vernon Mwaanga
and even provided details of
where he was staying in Lusaka
— lacked any shred of truth.
The Nation eventually recovered the public’s confidence
but the JM falsehood remained
a stain on the history of the
newspaper.
As a high school student and
avid newspaper reader at the
time, I followed the keenly the
aftermath of the brutal murder
of Kenya’s most popular politician.
I remember clearly the initial
shock and disbelief; the riots in
the streets and the open rebellion in Parliament that
shook the hitherto impregnable Kenyatta government to
the core; the blatant police
cover-up; and the hearings and
findings of the Parliamentary
Select Committee chaired by
Elijah Mwangale that remain
Populist politician JM Kariuki, killed in 1975.
unmatched by any other probe
by MPs.
As a Nation staffer, I have
every JM Anniversary reflected on the disastrous blunder
under the supervision of the
then editor-in-chief, George
Githii.
Politicians of that era provide fascinating insights into
the kind of manouevres which
were played out at the time and
how many senior newspaper
people in those days were allied to one or another political
faction even in the one-party
era where the battle was for the
Kenyatta succession.
It remains difficult, however,
to decipher the reasons behind
the story. If the intention was to
buy a beleaguered government
some breathing space as part of
a coordinated cover-up, it was
a massive flop that did incalculable harm to the Nation. Mr
Tom Mboya is
gunned down
By JOHN KAMAU
O
n a Monday morning,
October 14, the Court of
Appeal for Eastern Africa
delivered its final verdict on the
man who shot dead Tom Mboya,
Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge.
“We are satisfied that in all the
circumstances, the trial judge
was correct in coming to the conclusion that the evidence showed
beyond reasonable doubt the
guilt of the appellant,” said Sir
Charles Newbold, after a hearing
of the appeal that lasted threehours and twenty-five minutes.
It was a dramatic end to
the case as defence counsel, S
M Waruhiu cut his listed six
grounds for the appeal to three.
Njenga was arrested on July
21, some 17 days after the murder
of Economic Planning and Development minister as he left a
chemist on the then Government
Road, now Moi Avenue.
A statement from Mr. Bernard
Hinga, Comimissioner of Police,
issued that night identified Njen-
ga as the suspect. He appeared
before a Nairobi magistrate S.K.
sachdeva charged with the murder of Mboya.
Witnesses who had been with
Njenga that day say that he had
vowed to finish Mboya. “He will
never vie again for the Kamukunji seat,” Njoroge was alleged
to have said: “Tom-will not live
while I live”.
During the investigation, a gun
was recovered from his house in
Ofafa Jericho.
Mr Nahashon Njenga was
born on November 28 , 1936, in
Kiambu. He graduated from the
High Military School V. Levsk in
the People’s Republic of Bulgaria,
after taking courses in military
techniques, and firing preparations.
Njenga maintained during the
trail that a man he knew only
as Jimmy bought the revolver,
and six rounds of ammunition
for him for £25 a day after Mr
Mboya was shot.
He had no licence for the
weapon.
The trial of Njenga was covered verbatim by the Nation
but the final verdict did not end
speculation that there was another “big man” who was involved.
Njenga had during alluded
to the collusion of a “big man”
whom he did not name.
Mourners wail
and weep following the death
of charismatic politician,
Tom Mboya in
1969. Inset, the
Nation’s special
edition of the
killing.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XXIII
DAILY NATION
on the Nation’s most shameful episode
Githii was a political animal, but
it is puzzling that he might have
tried to aid a Kanu faction, the
so-called Kiambu Mafia around
Kenyatta, that he would probably
have preferred to battle.
The Nation editor was seen as
close to the Kanu faction grouped
around the then Vice President
Daniel Arap Moi and AttorneyGeneral Charles Njonjo. The
group was involved in a power
struggle against the Kiambu
Mafia represented by such stalwarts as former Foreign Minister Njoroge Mungai, Defence
Minister James Gichuru, Lands
Minister Jackson Angaine, Housing Minister Paul Ngei and Gema
boss Njenga Karume. These
made up the core of a group that
later came to mount the “Change
the Constitution” campaign to
prevent Moi from succeeding
Kenyatta. Mr Njonjo was hostile
to Dr Mungai, and there found
an invaluable ally in the Nation
editor.
And one must go back then
to the battle for Dagoretti at the
1974 general election. I was in
Form 2. I still recall the almost
daily reports on the front page
of Nation detailing in breathless
prose how Dr Johnson Muthiora, a newcomer and political
non-entity straight out of studies
in the US, was giving Dr Mungai
a run for his money on the campaign trail.
Mungai was one of the most
powerful figures in the Kenyatta
court. He had served as Foreign
Minister and Defence Minister
and doubled up as the elderly
President Kenyatta’s physician.
He was also the favourite candidate of the Kiambu group to
It was not a good start to the
conversation, especially because the
Uhuru team was not comfortable with
the way the Nation was covering the
campaign
succeed Kenyatta. Looking back,
it becomes almost obvious that
were it not for the Nation’s brazen campaign for his opponent,
Dr Mungai would not have lost
the Dagoretti seat.
Dr Mungai still remembers.
Many years after that climactic
Dagoretti campaign, I was part
of a Nation Media Group team
that was touching base with all
the key political groupings ahead
of the 2002 General Election.
In the process we hosted the
key campaign strategists and
advisors for Kanu presidential
candidate Uhuru Kenyatta, son
of the late President.
The team was led to Nation Centre by nine other than
Njoroge Mungai. Even before he
took his seat in the boardroom,
Dr Mungai remarked that he had
never been hosted by the Nation
since the paper had beaten him
in the battle for Dagoretti in
1974!
It was not a good start to the
conversation, especially because
the Uhuru team was not comfortable with the way the Nation was
covering the campaign. Dr Mungai seemed to think that it might
be a repeat of Dagoretti 74 all over
again. It took quite some effort to
convince him that this time the
campaign he was now heading
would get fair treatment.
The Dagoretti campaign coverage and the JM in Zambia report
caused Nation some serious credibility problems.
While it would be convenient to
lay all the blame on one maverick
editor-in-chief, it might be more
accurate to look at the failings of
the management and oversight
system, abetted by a culture of
the time which seemed to dictate
that the editorial desk be under
the stewardship of a personality
who was tightly embedded in the
political system
The headstrong Githii was
finally dismissed after he went
overboard with personal campaigns and openly defied the
Board of Directors.
His mercurial reign forced a
major re-evaluation of Nation
editorial policies.
Mourners
carry the casket ofpopulist
politician JM
Kariuki. He
was buried in
his home in
Nyandarua.
XXIV | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
When soldiers attempted a coup
event.” that has taken place in the short history of our young republic.”
Changes at Nation House saw Hilary
Ng’weno resign in 1965 to go into book
publishing. He was followed by the truculent and charismatic George Githii, from
the President’s Press team.
With characteristic gusto, Githii attacked growing official corruption and
led a vigorous campaign against the government’s Public Security Bill which he
charged would restrict citizens’ freedoms
and lead to detention without trial. When
students at Nairobi’s University College
protested against the measures, waving
placards saying “Not Yet Uhuru” – the title
of a recent book by Oginga Odinga – the
government closed the college. Githii resigned in 1968 to take up a place at Oxford
University and was succeeded by the quiet
and subtle Boaz Omori.
The Sixties ended in darkness. On July 5,
1969, Tom Mboya, aged 38, was shot dead
coming out of a chemist’s shop barely 100
yards from Nation House.
The Nation described it as “the most
horrific event that has taken place in the
short history of our young republic.” On
September 10, Nahason Isaac Njenga
Njoroge was sentenced to hang for the
murder. He said, “All I know is that I did
not commit this offence.”
Above: Leader of the 1982 coup
attempt Hezekiah Ochuka.
Kenyans had a rough time going about
their business after the mutiny by elements of the Kenya Air Force.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XXV
DAILY NATION
1986 -1987
Reactions as controversial as the ruling
By KIBE KAMUNYU
S
M Otieno, a criminal lawyer of no mean repute,
died on December 20,
1986. His death sparked a huge
controversy over customary
and common law in Kenya.
Silvano Melea Otieno was
born at Nyalgunga village in
Siaya, in Nyanza Province.
After his death, Nyalgunga became a by-word for village in
the popular Kenyan patois.
Otieno had married a
Kikuyu, Virginia Wambui
Otieno. When he died, she declared that he had wanted to be
buried at his farm in Ngong on
the outskirts of Nairobi. But the
lawyer’s Umira Kager clan said
their Luo tradition required
that he be buried in his ancestral home. They went to court,
setting the stage for a massive
legal dispute.
The case went through the
High Court, then to the Court
of Appeal and on February 13,
1987, the Umira Kager clan received a ruling in their favour. In
the following day’s Nation, the
headline read, ‘Song and dance
holds up city traffic.’ Reporter
Irungu Ndirangu, wrote: “At
12.15 sharp, Mr Joash Ochieng
Ougo, the younger brother of
the late criminal lawyer, Mr S.
M. Otieno, stepped out of the
High Court buildings and thundered: ‘Nyalgunga! Nyalgunga!
Nyalgunga!’ his hands punching the air.”
His booming voice drowned
the voices of about six women
intoning solemn Christian
tunes in Dholuo and marching before him as in a funeral
procession.
The crowd responded by
whistling, dancing and clapping as hundreds of Umira
Kager clans-people gathered
on City Hall Way and along
Wabera Street.
The cry of Nyalgunga! Nyalgunga, was repeated countless
times and Mr Ochieng said, “ I
am happy that the Kenyan Government has allowed justice to
take its course.”
Reactions to the court ruling were as controversial as
the case.
One Nation reader wrote, “To
my mind it was not Mrs Otieno
or the Umira Kager clan that
were on trial. At the dock was
the very existence of Kenya as
nation. What is the future of
mixed marriages in Kenya?
What protection does the law
provide to a nucleus family in
the event of the male spouse
passing away? The judges, the
High Court and the Court of
Appeal failed to address themselves to these poignant questions. Here was an opportunity for the judges to reject
ridiculous practices in favour
of progress and good taste. But
they refused to take it, and in
so doing, have spelt disaster
for many families. The injuries
caused by the Court of Appeal
ruling will take a generation
to heal.”
Another reader, Kunga wa
Rutere, said: “The learned
judge’s ruling that Mr Otieno
be buried in Nyalgunga should
make it clear to every woman
who wishes to be married
across the tribal barriers
that she should be ready to
embrace and identify fully
with the ways of her, hopefully loved husband.
This is not only where
inter tribal marriages are
concerned. Even where the
couples belong to the same
tribe, it should be obvious to
the wife that she is expected
to cuddle most lovingly to the
ways of the family of her husband because that is where
she now belongs.”
Lawyer SM
Otieno in
the corridors of the
High Court
in Nairobi.
Inset, how
the Nation
reported the
story of his
burial.
XXVI | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
CHRONOLOGY
DAILY NATION
1986 - 2010: Troubles and triumphs of
The 1982 coup attempt blemished
Kenya’s hitherto benign image and
human rights became a serious issue
T
he important events in
a country’s history do
not always follow neatly year by year or come
handily packaged by the decade.
More often, trends and signals
will show up coyly on the political scene, their significance unrecognised; for months or even
years, they disappear from view,
only to explode at some future
point in full historical fury.
This was often the pattern during the second half of the two nations’ story (country and newspaper) as events which impacted
volcanically on both the country
and the newspaper alternated
with fallow years of quiet and
progress.
A mature, educated Kenyan,
looking back over the last quarter
century, would probably identify
1986 and 1987 as the years of the
notorious Mwakenya scare, when
lots of innocent Kenyans were
locked up on dubious grounds of
sedition. In the midst of all this,
Parliament found time to confer
more power on the head of state.
Mention 1988 and the word
mlolongo would probably enter
our observer’s mind, for that
was the year Kenyans queued
up behind large photographs of
candidate MPs in what became
known as “the selection within
the election”.
By any standards, 1989 was
one of the volcanic years: Internationally, the collapse of Communism, nationally the bloody
fight for multi-partyism, Matiba/
Rubia/Hempstone/ Saba Saba.
Into the 1990s: Ethnic clashes
and the deaths of Robert Ouko
and Bishop Alexander Muge.
New opposition parties are
formed, but do not unite and
President Moi and Kanu win the
first multiparty election since
1963. The Nation group moves
into a new headquarters on
Kimathi Street, creates its first
new paper for years and builds a
state-of-the-art press hall. A new
word enters the Kenyan lexicon:
Goldenberg.
International terrorism afflicts
the region in 1998 as bombs explode at the American embassies
in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
Memories of Mwakenya are
aroused by reports of another
At least 44
Kenyans
were jailed
despite
lack of evidence that
Mwakenya
really
existed.
dubious enemy of the nation, the
February Eighteen Revolutionary
Army. It proves as hard to track
down as its predecessor.
NMG marks the arrival of the
second millennium with a flurry
of expansion, going into television and acquiring print and
broadcast outlets in Tanzania
and Uganda.
The opposition to Kanu finally unites and Mwai Kibaki
becomes head of state in 2002
in succession to the long-serving
President Moi. Promises to end
corruption are belied by new
scandals involving government
ministers.
Amidst anger and disenchantment, voters reject a proposed
new constitution in 2005 and
after the 2007 election, Kenya
is seized by a paroxysm of ethnic
violence which kills an estimat-
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50 GOLDEN YEARS XXVII
DAILY NATION
two nations
ed 1,200 people and displaces at
least a quarter of a million. Two
months of negotiation and the
threat of international pariah
status lead to peace under a new
power-sharing arrangement.
Such is the nature of day-to-day
life, it is the negative that catches
the attention while incremental
progress goes scarcely noticed
– in Kenya’s case, the easing of
civil oppression, release of political prisoners, the demystification
of the presidency, the willingness
of Kenyans to stand up for themselves, the disappearance of petty
party dictators, unprecedented
freedom of the media to criticise
and complain.
The following articles attempt
to address the high points of
1986-2010 in greater detail.
The 1982 coup attempt seriously blemished Kenya’s hitherto benign international image
and amidst the uncertainty and
tension that followed, human
rights emerged as a serious issue
for the first time. It was widely
known that many students were
foremost in supporting the coup
rebels and by 1986, graduates,
university lecturers and professional people began disappearing from the streets in growing
numbers.
When they reappeared it was
usually for brief court hearings
where they were accused of possessing seditious documents
and/or belonging to a seditious
organisation and/or failing to
report the existence of such an
organisation. The accused often
bore injuries from their cells, in-
Professionals, university lecturers
and students
appeared in
court in everrising numbers
to face sedition charges.
variably pleaded guilty and usually drew jail terms.
Between March and September of 1986 alone, some 44 Ken-
Mention 1988 and the word ‘mlolongo; would probably enter our observer’s mind, for that was the year Kenyans queued up behind large
photographs of candidate MPs in what became known as ‘the selection within the election’. 1989 was one of the volcanic years
yans were convicted of sedition.
The notorious organisation in
question was Mwakenya (Union
of Patriots to Liberate Kenya)
which to this day remains a thing
of mystery. Kanu supporters denounced Mwakenya as a revolutionary underground movement
operating from London with the
aim of overthrowing the government by violence.
Many MPs reported receiving subversive literature anonymously and a 1987 statement,
purportedly from Mwakenya,
denounced Kanu and “the cynical philosophies of Harambee
and Nyayoism.” The statement,
couched in classic Marxist phraseology, said: “The basic means
GENERATORS FROM 10 KVA UP TO 500 KVA ALL AVAILABLE EX STOCK AND ALL AT UNBEATABLE PRICES
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XXVIII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
Deputy Speaker
Kalonzo Musyoka
led MPs in
denouncing
The Nation,
leading to the
newspaper
being banned
from covering
the House.
Right: 1985:
President Moi
welcomes Pope
John Paul II
when he visted
Kenya.
NMG ARCHIVES
Parliament bans the Nation
of production, distribution and
exchange are owned by imperialist foreigners and transnational
corporations… the ruling comprador class acts as an overseer,
supervising the outflow of wealth
into Western capitals.”
Security officials claimed that
Mwakenya was led by Kenya’s
famed writer-dissident (and
one-time Nation columnist) Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o, while
academic studies of the era have
named various well-known Kenyan politicians as members.
But the organisation remained
a chimera to the Kenya media.
Reporters knew no Mwakenya
officials and received no calls,
manifestos or Press releases
from them.
There were no known office locations or telephone or fax numbers. Everything that came to the
media and appeared as trial evidence was from the government.
The seditious documents produced in court were always photocopies, never originals.
It was not only university people who were victims of the security dragnet – civil servants and
journalists, too, were picked up,
including Wahome Mutahi, the
author of Whispers, a widely
popular Sunday Nation column,
who received 15 months in jail on
Mwakenya-related charges.
But there seemed little doubt
that the crackdown confronted
the universities with the stark
reality of state power, undermining the academic capacity for independent thought and exploration in the political arena.
In ironic juxtaposition to the
unhappy national scene, the Nation group itself was doing well
at this time, benefiting from a
significant increase in capital expenditure which had been agreed
at the birth of its second quartercentury.
The company invested in a
computerised input system for
editorial, classified advertising
and some production functions.
www.kwal.co.ke
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50 GOLDEN YEARS XXIX
DAILY NATION
Seriously covering the East African region
By JAINDI KISERO
I
joined The EastAfrican
as editor when it was 10
years old. The founding
fathers conceived of it as a
business-oriented regional
weekly with a hybrid content: investigative reporting,
analysis and interpretation of
major trends in the political
economy of the region.
The landscape of economic
and business journalism had
changed dramatically between 1994 when the paper
was launched and early 2005
when I came in.
In the first place, newspapers in the region generally were beginning to devote
much more time and space to
economic and business content. In Tanzania, new English-language newspapers
had emerged, all devoting
space and an expanded news
hole to public policy issues.
The same thing was happening in Uganda. Like their
Kenyan counterparts, the major
papers
there
offered weekly
pull-outs devoted to business
and economic reporting.
In terms of design, The EastAfrican was positioned a good notch higher
than the daily newspapers.
The design was more sophisticated, in keeping with its
predicted core audience of
educated readers looking for
quality information beyond
the reprocessing of Press releases, reports of politicians’
public meetings, the reproduction of unanalysed stock
tables and routine reports
from central banks and stateowned statistical agencies.
By 2005, all the major daily
newspapers in the region had
adopted modern, upmarket
designs with colour photographs, information-loaded
graphics, front-page digests
and teasers. The gap between
The EastAfrican and the rest
of the media world had narrowed significantly since
1994.
Against this backdrop, we
at The EastAfrican had to rethink our sense of place and
re-invent ourselves. The aim
was to offer more than East
Africa’s dailies were offering
and to place ourselves at the
head of the new dispensation.
Daily newspapers tend to
concentrate on politics. And
the stories are usually so parochial and personality-based
that if you are, say, an investor sitting in European trying
to follow what is going in East
Africa, you will largely be baffled. Because such reporting is
personality-based, the reader
needs special skills to discern
the significance in terms of
political risk.
The niche left for The EastAfrican was to popularise
issue-based economic and
business journalism while
keeping the focus on regional
factors. In terms of business
journalism, Kenya led its
neighbours. Indeed, the Nation Group produced the first
daily newspaper in Kenya
dedicated to economic news:
Business Daily.
But the field remained wide
open for presentation of such
journalism in Tanzania ,Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
When The EastAfrican
broke stories, there was
always a policy
issue -- privatisation scandals, reforming financial
systems, restructuring of
parastatals,
mergers and
acquisitions and
dealing with widespread distress in the region’s banking
sectors. The paper established
itself as a premium product,
especially in Uganda and Tanzania, concentrating on issues
that commanded the attention of influential people in
industry and government.
Even the “softer” sections of
The EastAfrican offer content
likely to be of interest to international audiences: the environment, museums, books
and culture and in sports such
areas as horse racing, cricket
and golf.
As a weekly, there are occasions when it reports on
news that is already out there.
In such circumstances, the
challenge has been to provide
background, offer analysis
and locate the story in a regional context. The EastAfrican has also been very strong
on opinion pieces, showcasing powerful opinion writers.
It sees itself as the newspaper
for thinking East Africans.
Tanzania is a challenging
environment for specialist writing. The country is
an economic writer’s gold
mine mainly because of the
rate at which capitalism and
commerce are spreading, the
growth of a consumer culture
and the explosion of the property market.
Today, Dar es Salaam is the
fastest growing metropolis in
the region. One of my first responsibilities was to travel to
Dar to understand and gauge
the news environment there.
I had meetings with CEOs
of leading commercial banks,
representatives of leading
NGOs, the major lobbies and
business associations, international financial institutions
involved in the economic reform programme such as the
World Bank and the European
Union, members of the parliamentary opposition and the
Speaker of the National As-
sembly.
It dawned on me how most
journalists in East Africa
knew very little about what
was happening in the three
countries. I began to appreciate how The EastAfrican had
played a major role in developing a new cadre of journalists, those with the remit of
keeping tabs on major trends
in the region.
In the past, Tanzanians
looked upon Kenyans as
flashy people who liked ostentatious living. But I found
attitudes had changed as Tanzania society entered a state of
ferment. Look at the cars on
the city streets, for instance.
XXX | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
The infamous
1988 queue voting
O
n February 22, 1988,
Kanu selected its candidates for the March 21
General Election by requiring
party members to queue behind
a large photograph of their preferred leader. Voters quickly realised who they were meant to vote
for, regardless of their personal
preference. Party officials used
trucks to bring in people, including children, and provided
them with food and drink. The
length of the queue soon made
it plain who was the favoured
candidate.
Since there was a rule which
allowed any candidate who received more than 70 per cent of
the party vote to enter Parliament unopposed, only about twothirds of the 188 parliamentary
seats were contested by secret
ballot on March 21. It became
known as “the selection within
the election” and “I was rigged
out” became the widely-heard
complaint of the losers.
But the losers, in a sense, be-
came the winners, for this farcical charade created a new group
of oppositionists, not lawyers,
columnists or churchmen, but
hardened politicians with streetfighting instincts who became
the most serious focus of discontent since the coup attempt.
Rigged-out
heavyweights
such as Charles Rubia and Kenneth Matiba were wealthy establishment figures who knew
the whereabouts of the levers of
power. Coming together at a time
of growing pressure for multipartyism and with sympathetic
support from much of the Western world, they brought about a
sea-change in the way Kenya was
governed.
When former Nairobi mayor
Charles Rubia and wealthy businessman-politician Kenneth
Matiba moved to avenge their
ejection from power in the 1988
selection process, they went for
the jugular – Article 2A of the
constitution, a 1982 amendment
which had turned Kenya into a
Clockwise
from right:
Politician JJ
Kamotho at
the head of
a queue in
the infamous
1988 queue
voting.
Voters queued
behind the
picture of
their prefered
candidate.
Anglican
Eldoret Bishop
Alexander
Muge, who
died suspiciously.
DAILY NATION
50 GOLDEN YEARS XXXI
On February 22, 1988, Kanu selected
its candidates for the March 21 General
Election by requiring party members
to queue behind a large photograph of
their preferred leader
de jure one-party state.
In a joint statement, the two
men called for repeal of 2A, for
presidential tenure to be limited
to two four-year terms and for a
public referendum on Kenya’s
political future.
They were ploughing fertile
soil. Communism was disintegrating in the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe, the Cold War
was no more and Western nations were reshaping their policies towards the Third World.
Aid, they made clear, was no
longer necessary to counter Soviet might and in future would go
to those countries instituting pluralist systems and demonstrating
respect for human rights.
In Nairobi, US Ambassador
Smith Hempstone led the offensive. Uneasy at the growing
support for this new system, the
government restored the secret
ballot for election nominations
and agreed to restore security of
tenure to judges and high state
officials. But there was no retreat
on the one-party state and Matiba and Rubia announced a rally
in Nairobi for July 7, 1990. Days
later, both men were arrested and
detained.
Thousands gathered at the
Kamukunji meeting ground for
an event that has gone down in
history as Saba Saba (for the seventh day of the seventh month).
Violence quickly broke out and
crowds demanding the release
of Rubia and Matiba surged into
the city centre where they were
met by riot police with tear gas
and batons. Shops were looted,
properties set on fire and disorder spread to Central Province
towns and Kisumu. The rioting
lasted three days.
Matiba and Rubia were released a year later, both in poor
health after their detention, to
find opposition to one-party rule
gathering strength. The Forum
for the Restoration of Democracy (Ford) was founded, securing
support from many of the country’s political heavyweights.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
NATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY FUND
The Board of Trustees,
Management and Staff of the
National Social Security Fund Wishes to congratulate
Nation Media Group
as they mark their 50th anniversary.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES
Following the Kenya Gazette Notice No.159 of
30th October 2009,
it is now mandatory for all employers, including those with one to four
employees to remit contributions to NSSF.
For more information, please contact:
The Managing Trustee
P.O.BOX 3059900100, NAIROBI, KENYA, TEL:(254)202729911
www.nssfkenya.com
XXXII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
APRIL 22, 2004
Githongo lifts the lid
on Anglo-Leasing
T
he bill for looting government coffers during the Kanu years was
commonly set at around $3 billion, enough to pay for primary schooling
for every Kenyan child for 10 years. Thus
Kibaki’s inauguration day promise to put
an end to this perpetual scourge was received with delight by indigenous Kenyans
and by supporting developed nations.
To wide acclaim, Kibaki appointed John
Githongo, a one-time columnist for The
EastAfrican and a former head of Transparency International, as the first Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics.
Githongo quickly realised that the leopard of officialdom had not changed its
spots, however. As he industriously bored
into Narc-era deals such as the AngloLeasing affair, a multi-million contract
for passport equipment, the British High
Commissioner handed the government a
dossier which he said contained evidence
of 20 corrupt procurement deals which
had cost the country $526 million.
Details of the Anglo-Leasing scandal
were exposed by the Nation.
Githongo conscientiously
talked to government officials
and cabinet ministers, secretly
taping some of them. He concluded that the Anglo-Leasing deal involved 18 fraudulent contracts and implicated several senior government members.
Githongo said anti-corruption chief Aaron Ringera told him there would be
no Anglo- Leasing prosecutions before the 2007 election, if ever. He was also told by senior
government people to drop his investigation into Anglo-Leasing, that “what I
was doing was dangerous to my physical
security”. Fearing for his life, Githongo
fled to London. Nation editors Wangethi
Mwangi and Joseph Odindo met him secretly in London and later compiled the
first detailed account of the headline
“Anglo Leasing: The Truth”
Focused, Innovative, Integrated
Property Business Solutions
DAILY NATION
WAR ON GRAFT
Long history of crusades by
Nation against corruption
Nation writers exposed
the sale of university
degrees and the irregular
F
or 10 years, the Nation’s editorial carGodfrey
toonist,
Mwampembwa (popularly
known as Gado), has caricatured the corrupt and the
mighty strutting through
Kenyan society.
He has five characters he
considers members of his
personal “Animal Farm,” recalling the great George Orwell satire of that name.
They are human but have
the mouths of pigs, leopards,
hyenas, crocodiles or wild
dogs, “animals associated
with greed”.
Like Orwell, Gado uses
the characters to depict the
wickedness, deceit and indifference of a sleaze society where those with power
happily steal from and defraud their compatriots.
“The five are clearly associated with excessive eating,” he says. “They encompass the class that everybody
knows. I don’t have to name
names.
Rather, I use the characters.” Gado’s work is part of a
long NMG tradition to go to
battle against the swindlers
of the public entrustment.
From its earliest days, the
Nation has crusaded for an
end to corruption and creation of a just society that will
The ruin that is Mau today: Nation exposed the devastation of the water tower.
not tolerate fraud.
Awareness of the problem may have peaked with
the infamous and devastating Goldenberg scandal,
but NMG’s flagship publications, Daily Nation and Sunday Nation, had worked in
the public interest since the
early 1960s -- against suspected maize board thefts,
extravagance in Nairobi
City Council, heavy-handedness in legislating against
freedom of expression.
Years after the multimillion-dollar losses to the
economy caused by the
Goldenberg fraud, massive
frauds were still being perpetrated in numerous offical areas.
The Daily Nation was the
first newspaper to highlight the Goldenberg story,
on April 13, 1992. Its then
Business Editor, Peter Warutere, wrote in a lead article
on Page One that “a company given exclusive rights
by Treasury to export gold
and jewellery is involved in
a multi-billion shillings deal
that observers describe as
‘a scandal of major proportions.’”
A year later, writer Sarah
Elderkin told all in a Nation
serialization that outlined
the amazing effrontery of the
culprits. It was investigative
work of a quality which in a
country such as the United
States would probably have
won her a Pulitzer Prize.
Over many years, Nation
writers exposed the sale of
university degrees, the grabbing of public utilities, the
theft of land and the irregular excision of forests.
Nation Media Group
“has done a lot of good,”
says Catherine Wambui of
the Kenya Anti-Corruption
Commission.
“The Press has an enormous role to play in the
fight against corruption.
People believe in the papers.
Reporters can set out the
agenda by highlighting corrupt cases.”
John Githongo is Kenya’s former Permanent
Secretary
for
Ethics
who lifted the lid off AngloLeasing, a multi-billion shillings swindle that involved
high leaders. “The media
have been at the forefront,”
he said. Over the past seven
years in particular, their performance has been sterling.”
According to Transparency International, Nation
Media Group has been impressive in its steadfastness.
“Even during emotive times
and issues, the group’s faithfulness to ideals such as democracy, truth, balance and
justice seems steadfast,” said
TI Kenya executive director
Job Oginda.
“We have watched with
pride and gratitude as the
Nation took enormous political, legal and financial risks
on behalf of the citizens of
Kenya. We salute your whistle-blowing on issues of governance and we appreciate
your keeping in the forefront seemingly mundane
but pertinent accountability
issues.”
In Kenya, fighting corruption can be frustrating.
Those implicated blandly
deny charges and often are
appointed or reappointed
to plum jobs. Courts have
mostly proven irrelevant in
dealing with major scandals,
tending to target petty theft
instead.
Years after the multi-million-dollar losses to the economy caused
by the Goldenberg fraud, massive
frauds were still being perpetrated
in numerous offical areas.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XXXIII
DAILY NATION
1973 - 1979
The coffee and oil boom: lessons unlearned
By MUNA WAHOME
Waiting
for fuel in
eldoret.
I
n the 1970s, Kenya’s economy was dealt two trade
shocks in quick succession
and stubbornly failed to make
policy sense out of either.
The first came in October
1973 when Arab members of
the Organisation of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC)
withheld oil from the rest of
the world to protest against US
assistance to Israel during the
Yom Kippur war. The embargo
lasted up to March of 1974 and
damaged export-reliant Third
World nations like Kenya as
other OPEC members took full
advantage, sending cost-push
inflation and unemployment,
as well as trade imbalances,
spiralling out of control.
Naturally, Bretton Woods’
pressure mounted on Kenya to
devalue its currency and exercise fiscal discipline to reflect
the real situation. That would
wait for another two decades,
thanks to the second shock. In
short, Kenyans would remain
shielded from high prices by
a grossly overvalued currency
and its inefficient “infant” industries from the world.
On July 17, 1975, a freezing
wind blew from Antarctica and
the subsequent frost destroyed
at least two-thirds of coffee berries in southern Brazil. Countries including Kenya, previ-
NMG ARCHIVES
ously bemoaning low prices,
jumped in delight as the world
prices tripled in the New Year.
This trade shock, locally referred to as the “coffee boom”,
would last from 1976 to 1979.
Naturally, the Kenyatta regime was only too happy to
shelve the reforms that would
have liberalised the economy
and wrought much pain on
the increasingly disenchanted
masses.
The trade imbalance was
overnight rectified and coffee
growing areas were soon booming with construction of new
concrete houses. The Ugandan
dictator, Idi Amin, would only
ice the cake by withholding
coffee exports in replication
of the Arab boycott, triggering massive smuggling of the
Mount Elgon coffee beans into
Kenya until the newly installed
President Moi put a stop to the
lucrative trade.
Kenya miserably failed to
take advantage of the newfound wealth for a number reason. One, with the revenue it
maintained price and currency
controls and cocked a snook at
anyone who suggested reform.
In turn, the private sector had
no capacity to absorb the new
cash by for instance swiftly importing machinery and intermediate goods.
Secondly, the state cranked
up expenditure and made machinery too expensive for the
private sector. Thirdly, there
was no effort at sterilising (delaying absorption into the consumer economy) the inflows
and avoiding the sudden demand-pushed inflation.
As fiscal discipline was destroyed in the 1980s, the world
had entered an era of falling
commodity prices and Kenya
would pay the ultimate price.
In 1993, Kenya agreed to float
its currency, ushering in nearly
10 years of hyperinflation, stagnation and high poverty rates.
At the change of presidencies in January 2003, the coffee boom was a distant memory. The number one foreign
exchange earner was third to
tourism and tea with the coffee industry in the firm grip
of rogue directors straddling
all its institutions. The happy
generation of ‘coffee children’
had long been superseded by
poverty-stricken Mungiki adherents in the prime growing
of Central Kenya.
The board of directors, staff and entire membership of
Nation Staff Sacco
wishes to congratulate Nation Media Group as they celebrate their
50th anniversary.
We are proud to be associated with you. We thank you for the support
you have accorded us for past years.
Long live Nation!
We offer the following services to our Sacco members:
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On behalf of the board of directors, I once more say congratulations for
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Peter Wilson Ochola
Chairman
Nation Staff Sacco
XXXIV | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
1965
RECOLLECTIONS
How government
spied on Nation
in bid for control
The idea of buying shares was floated
during an intelligence briefing but this
was abandoned after some time
By JOHN KAMAU
G
overnment efforts
to dominate, intimidate and control
Nation newspapers
in the founding years — to the
extent buy a controlling interest in the group — are recorded
in declassified archival documents from the 1960s.
Nation journalists were spied
on under the first Minister for
Information, Broadcasting
and Tourism in independent
Kenya, Achieng’ Oneko, and
some of his successors. Editors
were lectured and threatened.
At a Kenya Intelligence Committee briefing, buying shares
in Nation Newspapers was
floated as a means of controlling a group that was demonstrating persistent independence. The idea was not pursued, presumably because the
authorities realised the newspapers’ content would then be
seen as evident propaganda.
While the East African
Standard was considered acceptable to the Jomo Kenyatta
ABOVE: Peter
Gachathi, PS
in the Ministry of Information, kept
watch on the
work of several journalists
and opened
files on them.
government, the Nation
group resisted being treated
as a semi-official arm of development and this worried
and angered government officials unused to free Press
traditions.
Attacks on the Nation also
reflected fault lines between
the right and left in government, represented by Tom
Mboya and Oginga Odinga.
A brief written by the
strongly left-wing Oneko
described the Nation as “reactionary” and a paper that
had “no place in an African
state”.
Intelligence officers and
the Kiambaa-born Peter Gachathi, Permanent Secretary
in the Ministry of Informa-
tion, kept watch on the work
of several journalists, investigated their background and
opened files on them. Some
of the files are now declassifed and are available at the
Kenya National Archives, the
national depository of government documents.
In one confidential letter,
Gachathi asked the minis-
50 GOLDEN YEARS XXXV
DAILY NATION
Kanyotu kept his eye trained on journalists
try’s Senior Press Officer, A.J.
(Tony) Hughes, to check the
recent writings of John Dumoga, foreign editor of the
Nation. The feisty Ghanaian
had crossed Kwame Nkrumah’s regime in Accra and
become a hate figure in Kenya
government circles. Gachathi
wanted him deported.
In his reply dated July 29,
1965, Hughes wrote: “You
have asked me to check the
recent writings by John Dumoga. In the last month, I
have only traced one article
appearing under his byline.
This was on Saturday, July 17,
headed “And the Nation Foreign Editor says Prove It”. This
was a criticism by Dumoga of
the white minority government in Rhodesia.”
This was three months before the November 11, 1965,
unilateral declaration of independence by Ian Smith,
the Rhodesian Prime minister. But Gachathi appeared
to suspect that Dumoga had
penned an article criticising
the Organisation of African
Unity, predecessor of the African Union.
Hughes went on: “I understand you have reason to believe that the story on Page 1 of
the Nation of July 20 headed
“OAU Facing Crash Crisis,”
bylined Nation Foreign Editor, was in fact written by him
(Dumoga).
“I do not feel that either of
these articles warrant action.
I do believe that past articles
by Dumoga have been objectable (sic). I propose that I keep
watch on the Nation from now
on and look out for anything
objectable by this writer.”
Intelligence, under James
Kanyotu, was also keeping an
eye on journalists. In one of
his files, Kanyotu has a note
on Dumoga, who was eventually deported. Filed under
“Miscellaneous (Secret)”, the
note summarises Dumoga
(wrongly spelled Demuga) as
follows: “Anti-government,
anti-CPP and anti-Nkrumah.
Went to California for training as a journalist. Before proceeding to USA, was on the
staff of a reactionary paper
known as Ashanti Pioneer.
Subsequently, he worked for
the Daily Graphic,which at
the time belonged to Cecil
King, who owns the Daily Mir-
ror in Britain. It was when the
Ghana Government bought
the Daily Graphic that he was
offered the scholarship to the
USA.”
Hughes, who was British,
was the Standard’s leading
political writer in the run-up
to independence, gradually
becoming more personally
associated with Kanu and its
bid for power. Last year, back
in Britain, he wrote a letter to
this writer saying he played
his part in uniting the various
forces in a Kenyatta government torn apart by Cold War
politics.
The Cold War, in particular
American involvement in Vietnam, was a polarising issue
in Kenya’s power politics in
the early 1960s.
In one of his letters to
Oneko, Hughes refers to an
item headed “Tragedy of Vietnam Refugees”. The Nation
had apparently used a picture
of American soldiers helping
refugees. This did not go down
well with the left-wingers in
the Kenyatta government.
Hughes wrote: “As far as I
am aware, our government
has not stated its attitude
on the overall Vietnam situation nor has it mentioned
upon any particular aspects
of the war. By the use of such
feature articles the Daily Nation appears to be attempting
to influence public opinion in
Kenya in a particular direction, that is to say, in favour of
the American position.
“While the Daily Nation
has a right according to the
freedom of the Press to take
what view it wishes of the Vietnam situation, it has a duty
to bear in mind Kenya’s nonaligned policy in regard to the
cold war.
“Moreover, if it wishes to
declare support for the American position it should come
out in the open and do so instead of using these underhand means by planted stories
of how nice the Americans are
to refugees. Why not balance
this report with something
from the Viet Cong about the
American news of napalm and
poison gas?
“I therefore propose that
the Editor of the Nation (Hilary Ng’weno) be informed of
our views on this particular
issue,” said the lengthy letter.
A brief written by the strongly left-wing
Oneko described the Nation as “reactionary” and a paper that had “no place in an
African state”.
It was not the first time that
Ng’weno would hear from
Hughes. On February 14,
1964, Hughes wrote to the Nation’s first African editor, telling him that the paper’s tone
was “completely inappropriate to the conditions of Kenya
today”.
Hughes wrote: “I think you
should try and have our agreed
meeting as soon as possible to
discuss these matters and perhaps to arrange for you to see
(the PS) and the minister,” said
the letter. There is no record of
Ng’weno’s reply.
Diplomatic complaints were
raised too. In March 1965, Guinean diplomat Barry Bocar Biro
complained about a Nation article and Hughes alerted Oneko:
“I agree with the substance of
the complaint. All too often,
newspapers of the Nation series spoil their other attempts
to work with the government
by using some article which is
completely contrary to the interests of Kenya.”
On April 13, senior editors
of Nation were summoned before Minister Oneko, who read
them the riot act, though his
comments were never publicly
reported.
FEBRUARY
1991
XXXVI | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
The terror that
surrounded the
murder of Ouko
Caleb Atemi recalls the dangers of
covering the story of the killing of
the foreign affairs minister
T
elling the story of Dr
Robert John Ouko’s
disappearance and
subsequent
death
placed me in the direct path of
his unseen assassins.
On February 15, 1990, news
Editor Mutegi Njau was on
the line: The minister for foreign affairs had vanished from
his Koru home. At 8.30 the following morning, sweating and
trembling, I was staring at the
minister’s smouldering body.
I had left for his farm at Got
Alila from the Nation’s Kisumu
bureau where I was a reporter.
Squads of security men were
combing the dry grassland
and I wandered away from a
group of General Service Unit
officials.
Afew minutes later, I found
myself paralysed and staring at
the smouldering body. Suddenly a police truncheon landed on
my face. Bleeding profusely, my
instincts glued me to the scene.
I knew I was the only journalist
who had seen the remains and I
had to tell the story through the
newspaper..
At 6.30 pm, as darkness descended on the eerie hillside,
a helicopter carrying the Permanent Secretary in charge
of Internal Security, Hezekiah
Oyugi, and Commissioner of
Police Phillip Kilonzo landed.
With them was the Chief Government Pathologist Dr Stanley
Ndaka Kaviti.
The trio summoned reporters to confirm what we had all
been waiting for, the identity of
the body found at the foot of
Got Alila hill. “Yes, this is Ouko’s
body. You can now go and write
your story,” Oyugi told us.
The pathologist took one
look at the burnt body, shook
his head and concluded that
the minister had committed su-
icide. The other two concurred
with smiles.
I had observed the weather
and vegetation at Got Alila and
it was dry and hot. I knew that
if the body had been burned on
the spot, the fire would have
spread through out the hillside.
I stated in my story to Nation that the fire which consumed an adult man only burnt
a small portion of grass below
his trunk. University students
quickly spotted the contradictions between my reporting
and the official version.
On the Sunday that my story, I
started receiving death threats:
“You think you are the one who
knows how to describe scenes
in English? We shall deal with
you. Tutakufanya kama Ouko”
(We shall deal with you like
Ouko).” Violence engulfed Kisumu for days.
Mr Atemi was a reporter at Nation in 1988 to 1999 and is now
a communication consultant
and biographer.
A Kenya Air
Force Puma
helicopter is
loaded with
the charred
remains of
Doctor Robert Ouko.
Inset, the
front page of
the Nation
reporting the
story.
NMG ARCHIVES
50 GOLDEN YEARS XXXVII
DAILY NATION
Nation editors down the five decades
Massachusetts, and had set up
The Weekly Review and after I
had returned from a three-year
tour of duty in Dar es Salaam
– Hilary hired me as his assistant
editor (The two Nairobi dailies
had rejected me because of my
“Tanzanian communism.”) Hilary
was as engaged by the Cold War
as were Githii and Henry Gathigira of The East African Standard
and I still have the hand-written
note in which he banned me
from using what he said were
“Communist stock phrases,” including “imperialism.”
It was Joe Rodrigues who
enabled me to return to Nation
House in 1978. He had taken over
a storm-tossed newspaper from
Githii after the latter had finally
stormed out in acrimony and
recrimination. Joe, a long-ago
immigrant from India, was the
quintessential newspaperman.
An accomplished reporter, a
skilled sub-editor, a dab hand at
design, he had been the Nation’s
backbone as managing editor
under all the above editors-inchief.
He was the man who made the
paper happen. And in the top
editorial job, he was different because he never involved himself
in petty partisan politics.
He was also the first editor-inchief who was ready to help out
a hard-pressed chief sub-editor.
Joe told me that he needed only
my skills in English and page
layout. I knew the Board was
against my hiring because of my
supposed left-wing views, so Joe
compromised by undertaking not
to allow me to do any writing.
It was thus under Joe the workhorse that I moved from editorial
copy reviser to become the Daily
Nation’s first black chief subeditor, taking over from John
McHaffie. Sadly, Joe died in
Nairobi early in the 1980s, soon
after he had retired from Nation
House.
He was replaced by Peter
Mwaura and thus began one
of the most tumultuous eras in
the company’s history. Peter was
probably the most perceptive
and socially conscious editorial
chief up to that time. His drawback was that having spent his
time in communication theory
at the School of Journalism of
the University of Nairobi, he
had no experience in newspaper production. His problems
were compounded when Dugal
Nisbet-Smith arrived from The
Times in London as managing
director of the holding company.
In 1981, I was among those who
resigned amidst the internal convulsions thus occasioned.
In 1983, Peter Mwaura was replaced by George Mbugguss, another workhorse who rose from
the ranks to become managing
editor of the Kiswahili Taifa
newspapers.
George it was who in 1984
convinced the board to hire me
back, this time as associate editor
to write editorials, take charge of
the commentary pages, edit the
letters and the Op-Ed section.
George Mbugua (aka “Mbugguss”) was a man of a special
intelligence.
With only eight years of formal education and having joined
the newsroom as a messenger,
he picked up enough reporting
technique and enough English to
pilot the Kiswahili papers quietly through turbulent times when
the English-language products
were coming frequently under
fire.
In 1988, Joe Kadhi (as his
deputy) and I (by then managing editor of the daily) became
his chief lieutenants. The three
of us would lock ourselves up in
George’s office for long hours discussing the news, rewriting pageone stories, suggesting the Page
One lead headline and designing
the page. It was perhaps the happiest and most productive period
in the Nation’s history.
Wangethi invited me to the new
Nation Centre in Kimathi Street
to take charge of editorial quality control.
Wangethi -- whom I had
“poached” from The Standard
and who proved an excellent subeditor, chief sub-editor and managing editor -- was now Group
Managing Editor, soon to be
prommoted to the newly created
position of Editorial Director.
Joe Rodrigues accomplished reporter, a skilled subeditor, a dab hand at design, he had been the Nation’s
backbone as managing editor under all the above
editors-in-chief.
Unfortunately, it did not last.
Later the same year, President
Moi invited me to take over from
a Briton called Ted Graham as editor-in-chief of The Kenya Times.
The challenge was irresistible for
a man like me whose career was
mostly playing second fiddle in
newsrooms.
In 1991, I retired from day-today newspaper work.
That same year, Mbugguss and
Kadhi retired and their places
were taken by Wangethi Mwangi and Tom Mshindi. In 2000,
Perhaps Wangethi was the
shrewdest of them all. As the
group’s internal “stabiliser” and
external “shock-absorber,” he presided over the company’s most
revolutionary period in terms of
capital expansion, technological
composition and relationship
with the political regime.
Throughout most of his Nation
leadership, the larger nation itself
was in the throes of upheaval, the
demand for multi-partyism proving, when it did eventually come,
to be almost unmanageable.
XXXVIII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
Terrorists strike at the heart of Nairobi
The attacks were attributed
to local members of the
Egyptian Islamic Jihad
I
nternational
terrorism
reached East Africa on August 7, 1998 when truck
bomb assassins linked to
Osama Bin Laden simultaneously blew up the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam
– precursors to the 2001 Twin
Towers outrage in New York and
subsequent tube and bus explosions in London, and train blasts
in Spain.
The Tanzanian bomb killed 11
people and injured 85. In Nairobi, some 270 people were killed,
at least 5,000 injured and scores
buried under masonry. Twelve
Americans were killed, including
the Nairobi consul-general and
his son, but the vast majority of
victims were locals. The injured
included Kanu secretary-general
Joseph Kamotho, who was visiting an embassy official when the
explosion occurred.
The attacks, attributed to local
members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought Bin Laden to
American attention for the first
time and the FBI placed him on
its Ten Most Wanted list.
Investigators reported that the
bombs were massive, 2,000-lb devices made of 400-500 cylinders
of TNT about the size of soda cans.
They were detonated by suicide
volunteers.
In response to the bombings,
President Bill Clinton ordered
a series of cruise missile strikes
against targets in Sudan and
Afghanistan. One of the strikes
destroyed a pharmaceutical factory which made many of Sudan’s
medications. Apparently unreliable intelligence had claimed
chemical weapons were developed there.
Twenty-one people were indicted for various alleged roles in the
East African bombings. Four are
serving life in prison without parole, four were reported killed in
Afghanistan or Pakistan and one
died of leukaemia while under
arrest.
Clockwise
from right:
The bomb
brought down
Ufundi Coperative Building; the scene
of the bomb;
President Moi
at the site
of the blast
in August
1988; vehicle destroyed
and members
of the Israeli Defence
Force, who
took part in
the rescue
effort.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XXXIX
DAILY NATION
and Dar in coordinated bomb attacks
US secratary of state
Madeline
Albright
with foreign
affairs minister Bonaya
Godana and
US envoy
Prudence
Bushnell
remember
victims of the
bomb blast.
The pain of loosing a loved one
is reflected on the faces of Kenyans at the August 7th Memorial in Nairobi.
XL | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
Nation’s battle for a
TV broadcast licence
One step at a time
T
I
he Years Between 1990 and
2000 saw dynamic expansion in the Nation group: a
new headquarters in downtown
Nairobi, a new upmarket weekly,
The EastAfrican, a $12 million
(Sh750 million) press hall on the
city’s outskirts with the latest in
printing technology, entry to the
internet and, crucially, a move
into the broadcast media.
Capital expenditure soared to
$12 million (Sh665 million) from
$1.6 million (Sh93 million).
The group’s new home was the
custom-built, multi-storey Nation Centre on Kimathi Street
designed by Danish architect
Henning Larsen. The new building was owned by Industrial Promotion Building Ltd., an affiliate
of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, in which
the Nation had a 20 per cent
interest. The newspapers took
four floors and their neighbours
included prestige tenants such as
the Nairobi Stock Exchange and
Diamond Trust Bank.
Staffers who had spent years
in the stuffy, crammed, chaotic
confines of Nation House were
delighted to move to their new
quarters in a light-filled, spacious, airy, noise-controlled, nosmoking and air-conditioned
ambience.
A major boost to journalistic
morale at the time was editor
Joseph Odindo’s creation, The
EastAfrican, the group’s first significant new editorial product
for many years. Devised to meet
growing interest in the East African region at a time when relations between Kenya, Uganda
and Tanzania were warmer than
they had been for years, the news-
paper presented as handsome
and indisputably authoritative.
Little more than a year later,
the International Press Institute
described it as “one of the best, if
not the best, of regional newspapers in sub-Saharan Africa”.
It was 1991 when the group
took the first step on a long and
arduous journey into the electronic media by applying for a
licence to broadcast. The government response was negative, presumably because of the Nation’s
independent editorial line, so
chief executive Wilfred Kiboro
organised the purchase of a controlling interest in East Africa
Television Network Ltd., (EATN),
which already had television and
radio licences.
The government promptly
cancelled EATN’s licences on
grounds there was a dispute
about the transfer of shares to the
Nation. There ensued a series of
court hearings, postponements,
statements and objections which
Kiboro characterised as “a merrygo-round of delay”.
Seven years after its first application, the Nation was awarded
TV and radio licences, but for
Nairobi only, not countrywide.
Negotiations ensued about frequencies, microwave links, the
siting of transmitters and the
strength of signals. As the millennium moved to a close, the
group restructured, partly to reflect its entry into broadcasting,
and changed its name to Nation
Media Group Ltd. A subsidiary
company, Africa Broadcasting
Ltd., set up to handle TV and
radio, was merged into a divisional structure within NMG and Nation TV (later NTV) was born.
The government response was negative,
presumably because of the Nation’s
independent editorial line
Dogged pursuit of licences
led to radio
and television stations
in Nairobi
and Kampala. Sheila
Mwanyigah
presents a
programme
for EasyFM.
T WAS THREE YEARS
AFTER THE birth of the Nation that Betty Friedan rocked
the world with her book, The
Feminine Mystique, which gave
birth to the second wave of the
women’s liberation movement.
Though her little polemic spoke
to the politics of gender equality
in the mainstream of American
society, its message resonated
with women worldwide.
According to women journalists working for the Nation -- and
this can be extrapolated worldwide -- the issues about career
advancement and equality that
Friedan tackled in The Feminine
Mystique remain as relevant in
our newsrooms today as they did
in the 1960s.
“It’s true what they say, a
woman has to work twice as hard
to be thought of as half as good as
her male counterpart,” says Carole
Mandi, who rose from sub-editor
at NMG in 1995 to become Publisher with East African Magazines. “This pressure to perform,
to get that MBA, to work long
hours creates conflict in a woman’s work-life balance.”
Certainly, there have been
vast, attitudinal changes towards
women in the African workplace
over the last five decades. But
Friedan’s struggle to bring women
“into the mainstream” remains in
contention in our countries.
Nation Media Group struggles
with the organisational challenge of promoting and retaining
women in substantive positions.
The debate is alive and passionate in other Kenyan newspapers,
much as it is in wider society. The
issue is not whether the Nation
treats men and women differently. The company has an equal
employment policy and boasts of
one of the most liberal and constructive corporate minds in Kenyan society.
The issue is whether there is
a systematic bias that is symptomatic of our society and our times.
Why, historically, have women at
Nation newspapers been underrepresented in editorial positions
of influence -- managing editor
level and above?
Granted, many women are
senior sub-editors, reporters, columnists and photographers. One
of them is Dorothy Kweyu, who
holds a senior position on the
copy desk as a revise editor. She
has a 31-year association with the
Nation, almost half of those years
on active service, and feels strongly about the subject.
“Most great women of the Nation have been forced to seek solace elsewhere,” she says,. “Some
beat a retreat like the proverbial
Luhyia woman, who goes look-
Name: Rita Tinina
Position: Senior Reporter, NTV
Joined: October 2000
Beat: General with interest in environmental reporting
Memorable Stories: “Troubled
Waters”, a documentary feature
about the Nairobi River that took
about three weeks to put together,
and shed new light on this topic
Name: Wangui Maina
Position: Business Reporter,
Business Daily
Joined: September 2006
Beat: Tourism and Transport
Memorable Stories: Covering
the aviation sector, especially the
Kenya Airways crash in Doula,
Cameroon and its harrowing impact on families. The global financial crisis was an eye-opener.
Name: Lucy Oriang’
Joined: May 1983
Position: Columnist and former
Managing Editor (Magazines).
Memorable stories:
Ms Oriang has been a strong voice
in championing women’s rights in
the media and is known for writing that pulls no punches when
it comes to bad behaviour in the
corridors of power.
Name: Njeri Rugene
Joined: 1992
Position: Parliamentary Editor
Memorable story: Exposing
corruption in Parliament where
legislators were being paid to ask
questions. One MP disputed the
story and asked that we name the
people involved, but the Speaker
is yet to deliver a ruling.
ing for another husband, only to
return for ‘burial’ because, somehow, Number One was the best.”
The fact that they are welcomed
back and allocated other duties
proves they were good, after all.
The following question arises, she
says: “If the Nation has as many
good women journalists as men,
why are its women not rewarded
with the biggest jobs in the newsroom? Many of them end up in
areas such as women issues and
entertainment”.
In all of top management, there
is only one woman, the Human
Resources director, and there is no
woman on the Board of Directors.
Editorial Director Joseph Odindo
said: “The idea is to strike a balance between attracting, retaining
and promoting the right women
journalists and affirmative action.
If you look at the Media Lab, there
is a very healthy balance between
male and female journalists,
and that’s the way things ought
to go.”Mr Odindo said the company had moved to even things
up through the MediaLab, one of
Kenya’s most competitive training
programmes. It recruits the best
university students from graduating classes in Kenya, Uganda, and
50 GOLDEN YEARS XLI
DAILY NATION
e, women climb the ladder
Name: Kui Kinyanjui
Position: Business Reporter,
Business Daily
Joined: September 2006
Beat: ICT
Memorable Stories: Covering
the rise of a new breed of ICT entrepreneurs. I am pleased the oneoff project later drove the development of BD¹s weekly pullout,
called Digital Business.
Name: Joan Pereruan
Position: Photo Editor
Joined: 2004
Beat: Photography for Daily Nation, Taifa, Business Daily, Sunday
Nation, Saturday Nation and The
EastAfrican
Memorable Stories: The exhumation of a 72-year-old woman
killed and buried by her last-born
son in a shallow grave.
Name: Sara Bakata
Position: Deputy Chief-Sub,
The EastAfrican in charge of the
Magazine
Joined: April 2002
Most memorable moment:
Every week brings new challenges on the sub’s desk and there has
never been a shortage of hilarious
moments from copy as well as colleagues!
Name: Dorothy Kweyu
Position: Staff writer-Revise Editor, Daily Nation
Joined: February 1979-November 1987; December 2003 to date
Memorable stories: A riveting
pullout on the malpractices of a
major tobacco firm, and irresponsible pharmaceutical firms that
were selling to Kenyans drugs
that had been banned elsewhere.
Name: Mary Wasike
Position: Revise Editor, Daily
Nation
Joined: October 2005
Memorable Stories: When
First Lady Lucy Kibaki was in
the building. It was scary because
of all the security people she had
come with. While she was still
around, a story was being written,
which she knew nothing about.
Name: Millicent Mwololo
Position: Features writer, Living
Magazine
Joined: July 2007
Beat: Features
Memorable Stories: I still hear
the cry of this widow and her
eight malnourished children at
their home in Makuyu, Kambiti location, Maragua district. I
metthem in January 2008 at the
height of drought and famine.
Name: Njeri Kihang¹ah
Position: Features correspondent, Daily Nation
Joined: June 2008
Beat: Features (entertainment
and careers)
Memorable Stories: How
US rapper Jay-Z and others weave
Masonic symbolism into their
music and
merchandise.
Name: Ruth Lubembe
Current Position: Editor- Quality
desk, Daily Nation
Joined: August 2004
Beat: Features
Memorable Stories: As editor
of Living magazine, I met childless couples trying desperately to
have children. These stories made
me realise that family really is at
the heart of everything.
Name: Adhyambo Odera
Position: Buzz Magazine Editor
Joined: 2005
Memorable moment: When the
Nation Media Group launched its
culture change programme. The
initiative shows what NMG as a
company stands for. Ever since
its launch the positive energy
around the newsroom has been
amazing.
Name: Mejumaa Mbaruku
Joined: March 2003,
Position: Editorial graphic designer
Most memorable story: Designing the page of ‘My brother’s keeper’ by Millicent Mwololo. It ran in
Living Magazine about a woman’s
experience of having to take care
of her brother who suffers from a
rare condition.
Tanzania and gives them one year
of in-house training and on-thejob experience on full pay. These
journalists are then deployed to
various outlets throughout NMG.
And certainly progress has been
made. When the question of
women’s promotion was raised
in the 1970s and 1980s, someone
would always raise the question:
“How do you expect a mother to
leave her house at midnight to go
report on a fire in Mathare?”
The 1990s and this side of the
century have brought changes
that have been reflected in NMG
newsrooms. In Nairobi, Dorothy
Kweyu became the first female
news editor, Catherine Gicheru
served as an investigative reporter and later as news editor,
Njeri Rugene is parliamentary
editor, Lucy Oriang’ rose from
copy editor to managing editor,
Ruth Lumembe was editor of
Living and Rhoda Orengo edits
Saturday Magazine.
In Tanzania, Sakina Datoo
was managing editor and Usia
Mkoma news editor at The Citizen, while Betty Dindi was appointed managing editor at NTV
Uganda.
Management points out that
these appointments stem from
a decision aggressively to recruit and mentor young women
journalists either through direct
hires, internships, or NMG’s annual training and general management career rotation programme.
The papers give major play to
stories such as the UN conference
on women in 1985. Topics such as
poverty, sexual violence, health,
education and female circumcision continue to drive coverage.
Lucy Oriang introduced the International Women’s Day special
project into the Nation in 2000,
which she registers as one of her
main achievements.
Many women join journalism
straight from university and start
families early in their careers.
“It’s doubly challenging to balance journalism with a family
since the job can take over your
life with its sometimes unholy
hours, travel and risk,” observes
Kathleen Openda, once a current
affairs editor with the Nation.
“Many women grow up and
have this ‘I’ll find a rich guy to
sort me out’ plan in their heads
and therefore do not pursue their
careers with the zeal of their male
counterparts, developing networks, looking for opportunities
for self-development.”
Human Resources Director
Mwikali Muthiani says she would
be happy to see more women taking senior positions. But the rules
will not be bent to favour a female
candidate.
“ We are an equal opportunity
employer but based on merit.
I, for one, would feel bad to be
picked for a position just because
I am a woman, so I extend the
same courtesy to others.p
XLII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
RECOLLECTIONS
Covering culture in Kenya:
A privilege and a paradox
Cultural controversy
provided the grounds
for healthy, constructive
debate in a democracy
By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU
C
overing culture in Kenya
for nearly a quarter century – almost half the length
of the Daily Nation’s life – was
both a privilege and a paradox.
It was a privilege because I
interviewed everyone from playwrights and poets to pop stars,
politicians and prime ministers.
Of the playwrights, I recall the
late Robert Serumaga and John
Ruganda as well as Francis Imbuga, David Mulwa, and even
Gunter Grass. Poets included
Okot p’Bitek and Grace Ogot, and
the pop stars were Mick Jagger,
lead singer of the Rolling Stones,
and Lauren Hill of Fugees fame,
among others. From differing
areas of achievement were Prime
Minister Gro Brundtlund of Norway, paleontologists Richard
and Meave Leakey, Mwai Kibaki
when he was a government minister, and preacher and social activist the Rev Jesse Jackson.
Indeed, just as celebrity sports
star Serena Williams came to
Kenya recently, so back then we
got used to seeing Hollywood
stars Meryl Streep and Robert
Redford on a regular basis.
Since culture is all about ideas,
I learned early on (while still a
student at University of Nairobi
studying literature with Ngugi
wa Thiong’o) that it is an arena of
clash and conflict. Cultural controversy provided the grounds
for healthy, constructive debate
in a democracy.
I covered theatre and the
performing arts for the Daily &
Sunday Nation and The EastAfrican; I also wrote for The Nairobi
Times and the Kenya Weekly Review, publications started by the
Nation’s first African Editor, Hilary Ng’weno. I wrote for short-
ABOVE: Charles Fleming (Iam
Mbugua) is surprised by Jayne’s
(Kiruu Mbugguss) forthright
manner as his brother Robert
(Steve Muturi) enjoys every
moment of it in ‘Don’t Misunderstand Me’ - Phoenix Players.
LEFT: Cultural activities are
fascinating for some, but many
others feel they are not a crucial issue in their lives.
NMG ARCHIVES
lived Kenya magazines like Men
Only and Trend, and I even edited my own magazine for Women’s World Banking.
I came to write about Kenyan
theatre through my experience of
acting with the University of Nairobi’s Free Travelling Theatre and
Most Kenyans believed theatre was for
the elite, the expatriates, the Europeans;
it had little or nothing to do with them.
then with the Kenyan contribution to FESTAC in 1976.
I played an unpleasant colonial
memsahib in The Trial of Dedan
Kimathi co-authored by Ngugi
and Micere Mugo. Through
those encounters with the stage,
I came to appreciate the vital role
that theatre can play not only in
entertaining people but in rousing their awareness of important
social issues.
Ever since the late 1960s when
Ngugi helped to spearhead a
cultural revolution in Nairobi
University, seeing the English
Department transformed into
a Literature Department with
its core curriculum being indigenous Kenyan oral literature, I
was aware that the issue of “decolonising the mind” would be
central in understanding the
role of theatre in society.
For if the colonial experience
was meant to teach Kenyans
their subordinate place in society,
decolonising the mind is meant
to restore a social equilibrium,
self-assurance and sense of selfrespect and dignity.
For instance, until the Free
Travelling Theatre began staging
African scripts and addressing
local issues from the early 70s,
most Kenyans believed theatre
was for the elite, the expatriates, the Europeans; it had little or nothing to do with them.
But now local thespians like
Imbuga, Mulwa, Ruganda, and
even Ngugi and Micere, began
examining issues of class, race,
ethnicity and Kenyan history
which had never been addressed
artistically before.
How I got
my job at
the Nation
By DOROTHY KWEYU
M
y early years at
Nation were remarkable in various ways. As a staff writer
for Sunday Nation, I investigated and wrote stories
assigned by managing editor Alfred Araujo, and later
Chege Mbitiru, who was
foreign editor when I first
joined the media group.
Many a time, however, the
assignments came directly
from the editor-in-chief,
Mr Joe Rodrigues, who had
hired me in the most unlikely manner after a 10-month
stint as a trainee feature
writer/reporter with an inhouse magazine publisher.
A fomer colleague, Seth
Musisi, had been nagging
me to quit for quite a while
after he landed a job at the
newly-launched Nairobi
Times.
“Dee,” he would say, “why
don’t you just call Mr Rodrigues? I know that if I leave
you here, you will continue
wasting yourself.”
Fed up with my dithering,
Seth called the Nation and
after a brief exchange with
a person I later learned was
Mrs Irene Karanja, he passed
the phone to me saying: “Mr
Rodrigues’ secretary!”
Caught flatfooted, I asked
to talk to the editor-in-chief,
and Wairimu, as I was to
call her ever after, promptly
gave me her boss, who asked
brusquely after I had introduced myself: “Do you want
a job?”
I hadn’t expected him to
be so direct and I mumbled:
“Not really, but something in
that line.”
“When do you want to
come?”
“At your convenience, sir,”
I replied.
When I showed up at Nation House on Tom Mboya
Street on that February 21,
1979, I found a panel made
up of Mr Rodrigues, Daily
Nation managing editor
Mr Joe Kadhi, and personnel manager John Karungu
waiting for me.
After a brief and lively interview, Mr Rodrigues told
me to put in my application
in writing. two days later
— February 24 — the Nation
drafted my first contract.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XLIII
DAILY NATION
How we made ‘The EastAfrican’ a reality
By NICK CHITTY
T
he first challenge I encountered during my
10 years with the Nation was to train the systems
staff. They were only seen on
the editorial or advertising
floors if there was a problem,
but they became the backbone
of the publishing operation.
It is hard to imagine now
but in those early years we
were right on the cutting edge
of high-technology newspaper
production. Some of our processes and practices were not
even being attempted in London’s Fleet Street or by British
provincial newspapers at that
time, either because of restrictive union practices or lack of
investment. Nation had a farsighted management policy
that saw where the technology was going and decided
early on to be part of it.
A huge investments was
made in the new Nation Centre and at roughly the same
time, a new printing press.
It is pleasing to see, even
after my time, that there is
still that far-sighted approach.
New editorial and advertising
systems have been installed
and of course the transition
has been made to publishing
online. I now sit in an armchair in London with my laptop and read about Kenya and
the rest of East Africa merely
by logging on!
To my mind, the The EastAfrican was the most adventurous, exciting and rewarding
project I had the pleasure to
be involved with. I had been
doing some work on new
publications in the UK at the
Independent and The Correspondent but I had never
had to plan from scratch how
to launch a new publication
from a systems point of view.
So, when we learned that a
new regional-oriented paper
was being researched we had
to think fast on how we could
achieve this goal.
The most important aspect
for any new publication is the
design. If people don’t like the
look of your new paper they
won’t buy it. A great deal of
thought was put into this and
design consultants were hired.
The onus was for the systems
team to interpret the various
design specimens.
Muumbo Muyanga was assigned this task and did a heroic job, spending many long
hours with The editor, Joe Odindo’s editorial team and designers, putting the finishing
touches to various dummies.
Every section of the paper was
scrutinised, revised and then
done again. Finally, it would
go down as an acceptable
dummy paper.
PROFILE
I have enjoyed my
work for 40 years
Eventually, a mountain of
dummies was whittled down
to the last dozen or so. These
were then laid out on the
board-room table for a final
choice to be made.
There were a multitude
of other minor problems to
overcome in the run-up to the
launch. One of the Atex computer software programmers
was asked to come over and
get up the telecommunications link between Dar-es-Sa-
laam, Kampala and Nairobi.
Luckily, Malcolm Jarrett had
been with us before and managed to get it all working.
Nick Chitty was Systems
Operations Manager from
1991 to 2001. He now lives
in London and runs a property maintenance business.
He is married to Kenya-born
Medrine who also worked for
the Nation, and they have
two boys.
Kenya Investment Authority
VISION “To be a World Class Agency in Marketing Kenya as the First Choice Investment Destination.”
MISSION “To Provide Exceptional Services to Attract, Facilitate, Retain and Expand Investments in Kenya.”
Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) is a statutory body established through an Act of Parliament Investment Promotion Act
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KenInvest free services include:
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• Assistance in obtaining any necessary work and residence permits for foreign investors & expatriate staff and
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• Assistance in obtaining incentives or exemptions under the Income Tax Act and the Customs and Excise Act, the
Value Added Tax or other legislation;
• Provide information, on investment opportunities or sources of capital;
• Promote both locally and internationally, the investment opportunities in Kenya
• Review the investment environment and make recommendations to the Government and others, with respect to
changes that would promote and facilitate investment, including changes of licensing requirements;
• Facilitate and manage investment sites, estates or land together with associated facilities on the sites,
• Appoint agents within the country and in any other country to carry out certain functions on KenInvest behalf, as it
may consider necessary;
• Appraisal and approval of investments
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Financial services
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Mining
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Building and Construction
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Infrastructure
N
oorbegum Kanani, supervisor of
the photo library
at Nation Media Group,
has seen it all, at least
from the time the Nation
was just 10 years old.
Ms Kanani joined the
classified advertising department in 1970 and now
ranks as the company’s
longest serving staff member. She will celebrate her
40th year with the Nation
in October.
From the advertising
department she was appointed photo library
supervisor. Among the
pictures in her custody
are many going back 50
years and beyond, some of
which have been used in
The Chairman of KenInvest Board of Directors,
the Management and entire staff of KenInvest
wish to Congratulate
Nation Media Group
on their 50th Anniversary Celebration
this souvenir issue.
How does it feel to be
with one company for half
a lifetime? “I have enjoyed
working with the Nation
for all those years,” she
says. Born in Homa Bay,
she has two sons and two
grandchildren. Her husband died in 1995.
We are proud to be associated with you.
Kenya Railways Headquarters, Block D, 4th Floor,
Workshops Rd., Off Haile Salassie Avenue,
P.O. Box 55704-00200, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254-20 222 1401-4, Mobile: 254 722 205 424, 722 209 902, 733 601 184, Fax: +254 20 224 3862
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Eldoret | Kisumu | Mombasa | JKIA | Moi International Airport
XLIV | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
The day Jesus preached to the newsroom
John Bierman, the
Nation’s first
editor.
By DICK DAWSON
F
ew newspapers could
have got off to such a
good start as the Daily
Nation, mainly because
many of the journalists who
came out from Britain were extremely talented, young and energetic and very excited about
starting a new paper in Africa.
Having people around like managing director Michael Curtis,
former editor of Britain’s News
Chronicle, and John Bierman, an
experienced Fleet Street operator who was our first editor, gave
us local recruits a great opportunity to learn the sort of journalism which was then unknown in
Kenya.
The strength of the paper was
in part its recognition of the importance of pictures in a tabloid
and our photographers were
chosen with care. One of the
best was the diminutive Caleb
Akwera, who was blessed with a
great sense of humour and often
returned from assignments with
idiosyncratic and witty photographs that nobody else had
noticed.
There was a minor rumpus when Kanu held a march
through Nairobi and Caleb noticed a cat walking in front of the
procession. The picture caused
much mirth, but the leaders of
the march considered it insulting to Kanu and wrote a letter
of complaint, which was duly
published. I heard later that they
wished they had never sent the
letter because people kept making jokes and asking if the cat
was a good leader.
A major error I remember from
those pioneer days was a frontpage lead, “Man Killed by Lions
in Game Park,” only inches away
from an advertisement showing
a lion’s head and the invitation
“Come to East Africa’s glorious
game parks”. I seem to remember advertisement contracts were
cancelled for some time.
One time, the Mayor of Nakuru
invited me to go with him to
Molo and interview Mau Mau
freedom fighters who had decided to surrender after years in the
forest. As the only mzungu, I felt
slightly apprehensive and it was
quite a dramatic moment when
about 30 of them came out from
the bush.
One of the men looked at me
and put his hand in his pocket
and, frankly, I wondered if it
would come out with a pistol.
But it was a hand-written Press
release and he said he would be
really pleased if I could put in the
paper for him. In fact, I found the
ex-freedom fighters rather timid
and very pleased to be photographed.
In the early days of the Nation, many potential politicians,
self-styled leaders and eccentrics
flocked to our offices opposite
the fire station, in what was then
Victoria Street, now Tom Mboya
Street. One of the latter arrived
one day dressed in flowing white
robes, told us he was Jesus Christ
and he was going to give us a sermon.
He then got up on a desk
be satisfactory to all parties and,
after a while, we got so used to
him that we hardly noticed him.
Unluckily one day, in the middle of a tour of the newsroom by
a group of VIPs, Jesus arrived for
his monthly visit, mounted on
a desk and began delivering his
usual booming sermon. Bierman
was conscientiously explaining
how the paper worked when he
realised that his listeners were
A major error I remember from those
pioneer days was a front-page lead, “Man
Killed by Lions in Game Park,” only inches
away from an advertisement showing a
lion’s head and the invitation “Come to
East Africa’s glorious game parks”
and preached in loud tones and
at some length. Finally, John
Bierman said “Thank you, but
please do not come back”. However, Jesus said he could not obey
such a request. There followed a
lengthy negotiation and it was
eventually agreed he could come
once a month and preach to a
strict time limit of five minutes.
This arrangement appeared to
somewhat distracted. “Er, who
is that chap?” asked one. “Is he
staff ?” Our editor’s skill with
words was seriously taxed to explain this bizarre situation.
But that was the Nation and
Nairobi half a century ago.
Dick Dawson worked as a reporter for the Daily Nation from 1960
to 1964.
RECOLLECTIONS
I held my breath in
terror as we lifted a
£1m computer
By PETER CHADWICK
A
fter 40 years in the
British newspaper
business it was a
major culture shock
to find myself in Nairobi on a
three-year contract. In 1990,
Nation Centre was just a hole
in the ground and democracy
was a murky concept to Kenya’s political classes, though
the Nation – under the redoubtable George Mbugguss was doing its level best to hold
them to account.
The one-time bakery that was
our head office on Tom Mboya
Street was not the most salubrious of workplaces, but I
perceived an energy, a determination to tell the truth – often
at great personal risk to the
writers – and an overall feeling
of wanting to serve the people
which were irresistible. Having chafed at the covert political bias adopted by most of the
UK media, I found it refreshing
to work for newspapers which
tried to tell the truth free of political, religious and tribal influences.
The big event during my three
years was the move to the
newly-built Nation Centre on
Kimathi Street. I had worked
on the building and development of two newspaper offices
in London but nothing on the
scale of this project. That everything went like clockwork
on the night of the move was
a tribute to the planning of
Nguchie Gathogo and his department and to the brilliant
computer expertise of the team
led by Nick Chitty.
I remember holding my breath
in terror as a £1 million mainframe computer was carried
in a tarpaulin down the stairs
of the old building by some 20
brawny men -- one slip and the
whole paper’s future was in
jeopardy. But all went well and
The modern
purpose built
newsroom at
Nation Centre
on Kimathi
Street is a
far cry from
the onetime bakery
that was the
newspapers’
offices on
Tom Mboya
Street.
we produced a full Sunday edition of the paper only 20 hours
after closing down in Tom
Mboya Street.
My policy about editorial content was that it was the business of the editors -- after all,
they were Kenyan, they understood their country and if they
ran the risk of upsetting the
authorities without having the
option of leaving the country,
it was not up to me to advise
them.
But I will take credit for one
innovation, the phenomenon
that became The Cutting Edge.
My feeling was that the papers
were often too serious and
needed a lighter touch here
and there and so I suggested
to Managing Editor Wangethi
Mwangi that we should have a
chatty column.
The only place available for
it, due to advertising requirements, was the outside column
of Page 7 which led me to suggest the name Outside Edge.
The team did not care for the
name but liked the idea and so
The Cutting Edge was born.
The column took off immediately and quickly developed
into a popular outlet for the
ordinary Kenyan to vent his
spleen at the inefficiency and
corruption of petty officialdom.
It still gives me a lift to see the
column’s name on the website
where I read the Nation.
When I knew that I was coming
to Nairobi I suggested to a colleague from the Daily Mail, Stuart Martin, that he should apply
for the post of Finance Director
and in fact he actually moved to
the Group slightly before me.
We quickly decided that the
Nation’s approach to finance
was conservative for a publishing house which dominated the
marketplace so completely and
so, under the guidance of group
chief Albert Ekirapa, we instituted a much more aggressive
revenue policy.
I hope it is not presumptuous
to suggest that our efforts were
at least partly responsible for
funding the growth of NMG
into the media giant which it is
today.
Peter Chadwick was Managing
Director of Nation Newspapers
from October 1990 to October
1993. He has been retired for
almost 15 years and lives happily in the beautiful Cotswold
area of Britain with his wife, television dramatist Adele Rose.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XLV
DAILY NATION
Gearing up
for the titanic
battle of 2002
I
N MARCH 1999, President Moi confirmed that,
in accordance with the
constitution which barred
him from a further term, he
would step down at the December 27, 2002 election.
There ensued a whirlwind of
political horse-trading.
Kanu formed an alliance
with Raila Odinga’s National Development Party and
Odinga became a cabinet
minister in a precedent-setting coalition. Subsequently,
the NDP was absorbed into
Kanu, of which Odinga became
secretary-general,
forcing out the long-serving
Joseph Kamotho.
Four months before the
election, Moi named Uhuru
Kenyatta as the man who
should step into his shoes
as Kanu’s presidential candidate. Uhuru, son of the late
President Jomo Kenyatta,
was just 35 and had minimal
ministerial experience. The
move angered many Kanu
veterans and some 30 MPs
boycotted the party conference which endorsed Uhuru’s candidacy.
On that same day, October
14, across Nairobi in Uhuru
Park, Kanu’s main opponents
finally formed a grand alliance, having learned the lessons of presenting multiple
candidates in 1992 and 1997.
Combinations of smaller parties produced the National
Rainbow Coalition (Narc)
with Mwai Kibaki at its head
as the sole presidential candidate.
Kenya’s newspapers frontpaged an historic photograph
of friends and former enemies all sitting at the same
table: Kibaki, Moody Awori,
Charity Ngilu, George Saitoti, Kalonzo Musyoka, Raila
Odinga, Simeon Nyachae,
Kijana Wamalwa and Farah
Maalim.
It was a formidable lineup and Kanu zealots realised
they could lose an election for
the first time.
In the final weeks before
polling day, there was an upsurge of dubious dealings at
official level, duly reported
by the Nation’s investigations desk, including looting of the NSSF, the National
Hospital Insurance Fund and
the Kenyatta National Hospital. Partly, the cash thus
secured was used to make
PROFILE
She witnessed Nation
grow from infancy
A
rare employee who
saw the Nation
grow from infancy
in 1961 to its full-fledged
adult status is the diminutive, bustling, cheerful
and energetic Wilma De
Souza.
Wilma retired in 2000
aged 60, having worked
for the group for 38 years.
“If it were not for the age
factor, I would have liked
to continue,” she said in a
recent interview.
Ms De Souza joined the
Nation on July 1, 1961 as an
administrative assistant.
She later joined the photo
library, rising to become its
first head, responsible for
setting up the archival system from scratch.
Wilma is proud that she
organised records in photographic form of some of
the great events in Kenya’s
history.
She recalled the release
of Jomo Kenyatta from detention in August 1961, the
independence celebrations
in December 1963.
Mr Mwai
Kibaki and
Raila Odinga
before the
2002 elections.
XLVI | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
2007 polls and the v
I
Excited supporters of Raila Odinga at an Orange Democratic Party rally in Nairobi
during the 2007 presidential election campaign.
n the run-up to the 2007
election, the economy was
forging ahead, the media
enjoyed unusual freedom, there
were no political prisoners, primary school children were getting free education, tourism was
booming and Kenya enjoyed a
generally good name in international circles.
But official corruption continued to flourish, there was lingering anger over the failure of constitutional reform and the spectre
of tribalism was inescapably visible in the line-ups for the poll.
Mwai Kibaki, Raila Odinga and
Kalonzo Musyoka were principal
candidates for the Presidency
while two political groupings
dominated the parliamentary
scene – Kibaki’s Party of National
Unity, backed by the traditional
Gema alliance, and Odinga’s
Orange Democratic Movement,
which brought together Luos,
Kalenjins and some Luhyas.
Early returns looked bad for
the ruling regime as the ODM
outpolled the PNU two-to-one
and a raft of heavyweights were
rejected, including Vice-President
Moody Awori, Njenga Karume,
Nicholas Biwott and Gideon,
Jonathan and Raymond Moi.
Then when the presidential
result was finally announced –
4,584,721 votes for Kibaki against
Odinga’s 4,352,993, violence
broke out but what was shocking was the extent and depth of
the fury.
In the worst convulsion in its
independent history, 1,200 Kenyans were killed with many thousands injured, in Western Kenya,
the Rift Valley, Nairobi, Mombasa and elsewhere. Tribal gangs
attacked their perceived enemies
with pangas, clubs and fiery
torches, prompting reprisal raids
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The Kiambaa fire tragedy: Anger and fear ruled as Kenyans turned on each other in a bloody response to the 2007 poll.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XLVII
DAILY NATION
violent aftermath
of equal ferocity. The torching of
a church containing 30 people,
many of them women and children, near Eldoret, was emblematic of the unleashed hatred.
As many as 600,000 people
were rendered homeless and refugee camps became permanent
elements on the national scene.
Economic damage was counted
in billions of dollars. The Daily
Nation declared: “This madness
cannot be allowed to go on.”
The international community,
in the form of the African Union,
the United States and Britain,
stepped in and made it plain
that the crisis must be resolved
without delay. Kibaki and Odinga
began fitful peace talks but it was
only with the arrival of the former
secretary general of the United
Nations, Kofi Annan, on January
22 that designated negotiating
teams began meeting.
Since it was now crystal clear
that power-sharing was the only
realistic solution to Kenya’s problems of ethnic division, some
form of coalition government
became the fundamental objective of the negotiators. But with
the two sides finding it difficult to
shift from their entrenched positions, Annan moved the talks to a
secret location and demanded a
news blackout.
Under the National Accord
and Reconciliation Act, signed
by Kibaki and Odinga on February 28, 2008, the parties agreed
to form a grand coalition government. Kibaki, who had been
sworn-in was president and
Odinga became prime minister.
The pact was widely welcomed.
Heading towards its own 50th
anniversary in 2013, independent
Kenya faced some fundamental,
divisive issues which needed to
be resolved once and for all if the
country was to move safely for-
As many as 600,000 people were
rendered homeless and refugee camps
became permanent elements on the
national scene. Economic damage was
counted in billions of dollars. The Daily
Nation declared: “This madness cannot
be allowed to go on”
ward.
To this end, two commissions
were established as part of the
peace pact: one to assess the conduct of the election, the other to
investigate responsibility for the
post-election violence.
The Kriegler Commission concluded that Kenyans would never
know who won the election be-
cause it was impossible to establish reliable results.
This conclusion satisfied many
peace-lovers. The Waki Commission handed a list of alleged perpetrators of the violence to Kofi
Annan, who passed it to Luis
Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal
Court.
Kenyans experienced virtually
every painful
emotion known
to man as violence threatened to tear
the country
asunder.
The International community pressed Mr
Kibaki and Mr
Odinga into a
power-sharing
arrangement
that brought
peace to the
nation. The
brokers included President
John Kufuor of
Ghana (below),
Mr Kofi Annan
and former
Tanzanian
President Ben
Mkapa.
XLVIII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
There was
heartfelt relief
all over Kenya
when the two
giants at the
heart of the
crisis signed
on the dotted
line in a deal
brokered by
Kofi Annan
(above)
Luis MorenoOcampo the
ICC chief
prosecutor
pursuing the
masterminds
of the post
elections violence.
2007 Election and the violent aftermath
TOP NEWS
Investo≥s lose
Sh40bn
in NSE ove≥ pol
l c≥isis
Page 2»
Af≥ican nation
to imp≥ove ai≥ s t≥y
safety
COMPANY &
INDUSTRY
Family fi≥ms ≥ely
an invisible CE on
O
Page
Page 26»
s 10 - 11 »
NO. 208
Save ou≥ belov
ed
THURSDAY
JANUARY 3,
2008
No g≥ievance is
wo≥th the bloo
d of innocent Ken
politicians’ cau
yan child≥en
ses G≥ands
tanding taking
nation nowhe≥e
KSH50
| TZSH1,000
|
count≥y
, and the government
was urged to set up a tribunal to deal with the
issue.
(The Kenya Human
Rights
Commission
meanwhile named 219
people, including PNU
and ODM cabinet ministers, as organisers, facilitators or perpetrators of the
violence.) When the cabiNEWS IN DEPTH
net decided against setting up
a special tribunal, US Secretary
O≥ganised mas
sac≥e, looting neg
ate mo≥al basis
Kibaki, Raila sho
of
uld stand dow
n if they can’t face
≥eality
Kenyans flee to
safety as ethnic
violence spread
s to Kikuyu in Kiamb
u District. More
ur beloved countr
than 75,000 Kenyan
y, the Repubs have been displac
lic of Kenya
ed and hundre
It is unbelievabl
, is a burnt
ds killed as politic
e foolishness
out,
smouldering
Kenyans to
ians continue
for
ruin. The econdestroy their
to square off over
omy is at a virtua
COMMENT
economy,
presidential poll
their homes and
l standstill and
results.
their entire way
mies of destru
the arwanton, well-o
A MEDIA PLEA FOR
in the name
of life
ction are on the
rchestrated
SANITY
of politics and
blood
march in
the Rift Valley
ting are under
on behalf
of people whose
the country
and other places
mining the moral -letare
back from the
curren
lives
.
tly
of the politic
of comfort and
basis
In the midst
in great dange
brink and
luxury are going
help restore the
ians’ cause.
of this, leader
r of losing
their credibility
public’s confid
on normally.
s — who
are the direct
Those in autho
in the eyes of
ence and
sense of safety
The media in
cause of this
Kenyans
rity must not
and the intern
.
Kenya today
catastrophe — are issuin
more regard
have
ational comm
propose
to be forthright
for their — tenuo
Tough talk,
g half-hearted
unity
cause
beand
of
grand
us
united
the
for peace, from
on power than
— grip
calls
systematic killing
standing and
in confronting this blood
empty pointlives and prope
the
innocent sweep
of
shed and disun
scorin
hotels and walled comfort of their
rty.
It must be a blind
ing Kenya, destru the
ity in the
country. There
the nation anywh g is not getting
homes in Nairo
of the economy
and deaf perso
ction
is no cause and
ere. The mome
whence they
who does not
bi,
and the spread
n
no right
more valuable
has come to
are conveyed
nt
hear
of
fectio
the
disafisolate
than
cries
n
in
throughout the
the right to life.
proof limou
bulletthe hardliners
70,000 peopl
of the
litical leader
both sides and
sines.
land.
e, many of them
Poon
s on both sides
No grievance
EDITORIAL,
our children, who are
and no cause
Page 14»
must be
told in no uncer
now refugees
is worth
the innocent
tain terms that
in their
own country.
blood of Kenya
they
n children.
The orgies of
looting, burnin
A final oppor
g, rape and
tunity now presen
itself for the politic
ts
Unveiling camp
al leadership
to pull
money bags aign
Elections
BRIEFING
PETERSON GITHAIGA
O
barons
US presidential
aspirants Barack
Obama and Hillary
Rodham Clinton each surpas
sed the $100
million fundraising
mark for their
presidential campa
igns by year’s
end.
Page 6»
hang
slows businessover
Business was sluggis
h
woke up to the first as Nairobi
working day
of 2008 that was
preceded by
violent clashes that
followed the
controversial outcom
week’s general electioe of last
n.
Page
8»
It’s back to the
board for Presi drawing
dent
With 20 ministe
rs losing
parliamentary seats, their
President
Mwai Kibaki will
miss
services of key driversthe
government when of his
he
new Cabinet in the forms the
next few days.
Page 9»
UGSH1,400
Treasury to split
position into two
The proposed positio
n
ernance-cum-financi of a goval advisor
was split after a
candid
marked for the positio ate earn failed
to meet conditi
ons set out by
donors.
Page 20»
World order is
as old captainschanging
to new kings give in
Pages 16 - 17»
of State Hilary Clinton met with
the president and the prime minister and declared: “We’ve been
very clear in our disappointment
that action has not been taken
(over the violence.)” She urged
the powers-that-be to “step up to
their responsibilities and remove
the question of impunity”.
For his part, Moreno-Ocampo
announced that crimes against
humanity had been committed
and he would seek formal investigation of them. He met with President Kibaki and Prime Minister
Odinga and said they pledged to
co-operate.
What emerged from the election post-mortems as deeply
significant was the similarity of
the violence to the ethnic clashes
of the 1990s. The 529-page Waki
report said: “The fact that armed
militias, most of whom developed as a result of the 1990s ethnic clashes, were never demobilised led to the ease with which
political and business leaders reactivated them for the 2007 postelection violence.”
Not everything was negative
about Kenya’s unresolved issues, however. A Committee of
Experts unveiled a draft constitution which seemed to meet the
approval of most Kenyans. Wellwishers expressed the hope that
the top leadership would endorse
the draft and bring their supporters with them.
50 GOLDEN YEARS XLIX
DAILY NATION
TRAINING
Scaling new heights in the
training of young journalists
By DAVID ADUDA
N
ation Media Group has a
long history of fostering
journalistic talent and
professionalism. From the outset,
in 1960, its founder, His Highness
the Aga Khan hired seasoned editors and reporters from London
and mandated them to design
and undertake an aggressive
training programme to foster a
new cadre of African media professionals, providing them with
the necessary journalistic and
managerial skills and offer them
ongoing opportunities to excel
professionally.
In-house training was institutionalised with the appointment
of training editors, whose brief
was to offer apprenticeships to
local journalists; taking them
through all elements of journalism, ranging from news writing
to copy editing and newspaper
production. An early beneficiary was Philip Ochieng’, who was
plucked from government service, where he had served as a
protocol officer in the Division of
External Affairs, then under the
Prime Minister’s office. Ochieng’
rose from a cub reporter to become managing editor of the
Nation and, later, editor-in-chief
of the Kenya Times, which was
then owned by the then ruling
party, the Kenya African National Union.
Another early beneficiary was
Joe Kadhi, who started his career
as a reporter for Taifa Leo, but
was later absorbed in the Daily
Nation stable after a training
stint at the newly opened School
of Journalism at the University
of Nairobi. The School itself had
been established with the collaboration of the Vienna-based International Press Institute, which
had close links with the Nation.
Kadhi rose through the ranks to
become Assistant Group Managing Editor of the newspaper division and established himself
as a popular social and political
commentator with his weekly
column in the Daily Nation titled
Joe Kadhi asks WHY? Today he
mentors and teaches young journalists at the United States International University in Nairobi.
The appointment of Hillary
Ngweno, a Harvard trained
physicist, as editor-in-chief only
two years after Nation’s inception was the strongest signal of
the desire to empower Africans
to chart the destiny of the Nation.
Professor Wangari Maathai receives the Nobel Peace Prize
in Oslo. She is the first African woman to receive the prize.
Prof Maathai is the founder of the Greenbelt Movement.
Battle for democracy
picks up momentum
He played an instrumental role
in initiating training plans for
Nation journalists.
Besides in-house training,
various programmes helped to
mentor and enhance journalistic skills. Among others, the
Nation entered into a twinning
partnership with the St. Petersburg Times newspaper in the US,
where Nation journalists would
be sent on fellowships to learn
best practices abroad. (A similar partnership was cemented in
later years with the Kansas City
Star of the US) More initiatives
followed such as sponsoring journalists for internships and journalism training abroad and at the
School of Journalism.
As the Nation Media Group
expanded, so too did its training
and professional development
needs. In particular, the Group’s
expansion into Uganda and Tanzania and diversification into
broadcasting and digital media
in the 1990s and 2000s exposed
the dire shortage of trained journalists in the wider region – as
well as critical skill and experience gaps in traditional and
new media formats. A strategic
response – namely, creating a
pipeline to identify, nurture and
retain talent – was imperative.
That response was the Nation Media Lab, established in
2007 to incubate talent and develop media professionals with
the broad range of skills that
matched the groups expanding
needs. Specifically, the purpose
of the Lab was to identify fresh
university graduates from different professions and take them
through an intensive hands-on
craftsmanship to turn them into
journalists.
It was styled a “laboratory”
deliberately – both to signal the
Group’s purpose of creating a
hub for journalistic talent and to
distinguish it from other journalism training models.
Three years after inception,
the Media Lab has admitted
and trained 60 recent graduates
from universities across East Africa. Rather than focus solely on
mass communication graduates,
Media Lab
trainees
spruce up
for graduation.
political payments to swing
the election and partly to fatten individual bank accounts
in a last-chance raid on the
Treasury’s coffers before an
expected change of regime.
Although Mwai Kibaki
was injured in a car crash
and sidelined for several
weeks, the extraordinary
spectacle of a united opposition excited Kenyans as
never before. The campaign
was unusually free from violence, as if the dirty-tricks
specialists had already given
up the ghost, and the antiKanu forces duly won an
emphatic victory in both
presidential and parliamentary contests, ending nearly
four decades of uninterrupted Kanu rule.
Kibaki took the presidency with 62.3 per cent of votes
against Uhuru Kenyatta’s
31.3 per cent and Narc won
125 of 210 available parliamentary seats. Kanu was
reduced to 64 and FORDPeople won 14. The election
turnout was a high 56.1 per
cent.
Though confined to a
wheelchair with one leg in
plaster, Kibaki presented a
formidable figure at his in-
auguration, condemning
Kanu’s years of misrule and
declaring that “corruption
will now cease to be a way of
life in Kenya.”
The new government
embarked on a whirlwind
of change. Its most popular
decision was to initiate free
primary education for all
children, but Kibaki also appointed bodies to investigate
Goldenberg and the murder
of Robert Ouko, opened detention cells in Nyayo House
for public viewing, oversaw
the start of a constitutional
review conference and began
moves to rid the judiciary of
corrupt magistrates and
judges.
Kenyans had seen nothing like it and briefly the nation seemed united and at
one. Democracy was at last
achieved. Inevitably, however, the honeymoon did
not last.
The bill for looting government coffers during the Kanu
years was commonly set at
around $3 billion, enough
to pay for primary schooling
for every Kenyan child for 10
years. Thus Kibaki’s inauguration day promise to put an
end to this perpetual scourge
was received with delight by
indigenous Kenyans.
L | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
At the heart of popular culture
The Nation
covered the
origins of Benga
music, from the
Lake Victoria
region
J
ust as the Nation in its early
days set out to give a voice
to African political leaders
ignored by the colonial Press, so
it opened its pages to the vibrant
indigenous music in a burgeoning
entertainment industry.
You can look through the Nation and trace the careers of some
of today’s most famous musicians.
In the early 1960s, Kenya’s
white-oriented newspapers concentrated on dog shows, pony
gymkhanas, visiting entertainers
at the New Stanley Grill Room
(comedian/violinists such as Vic
Oliver) and plays and musicals at
the Donovan Maule Theatre. The
songs and stories that captured
the rich depth of African cultural
life found no space.
Through Taifa, Taifa Jumapili
and the Nation, readers learned
of top singers and composers
like Fundi Konde, Daudi Kabaka,
Paul Mwachupa, Fadhili William,
Them Mushrooms, Maroon Commandos, comedians Mzee Pembe,
Mama Toffi, Othorong’ong’o Danger, Mutiso, Baba Zero, Makanyanga and Athuman Kaipanga,
who dominated the black and
white screen of the Voice of
Kenya for years. Many Kenyans
will remember comedy shows
of the late 1960s, 1970s and the
later 1980s like Kivunja Mbavu
and Vitimbi.
A great musician, whose career the Nation tracked for years
was Fadhili William. He was best
known for that great song, Malaika. But controversy grew about
its genesis following reports in
the early 1960s that Grand Charo
was in fact the original composer.
Fadhili, it was said, simply popularised the song in new versions,
as did many other international
artistes.
Other noted numbers by Fadhili
were Taxi Driver and Uwe Wangu.
His stints later with the Hodi Boys
Band and veteran Juma Toto
were also widely reported by Nation. Esther John, Fadhili’s sister,
will be remembered by readers
for the Taita song, Kibilingisho
Ngome, which was later redone
by veteran Habel Kifoto and the
Maroon Commandos band.
Fadhili was born in Taita-Taveta and started music in primary
ABOVE: Members of Equator Sounds
Band, Nashil Pitchen,
Fadhili Williams, Charles
Sonko, Peter
Sotsi with
an unidentified fan. The
band went on
to record the
classic “Pole
Musa” which
burst charts in
the late 60s.
NMG ARCHIVES
RIGHT: Singer
Miriam Makeba (far left)
with government minister
James Gichuru and other
guests at the
1963 Uhuru
celebrations.
NMG ARCHIVES
school, joining a choir. In the
1980s, he moved to the United
States, but his career did not
prosper. He returned home in
1997 and died in February 2001.
With Malaika, Fadhili put
Kenya on the international music
scene. The song was later redone
by Miriam Makeba, Boney M and
others.
Fundi Konde, one of Kenya’s
greatest composers, was born in
Kilifi District in distant 1924. He
had strong Kiswahili lyrics and
mostly wrote love ballads.
Fundi entertained troops in
South Asia during the Second
World War and had many hits,
including Mama Sowera, Majengo Siendi Tena, Kipenzi Waniua
Ua, Jambo Sigara and Tausi. He
died in 2000. The original “Dreva
Kombo” was done by Paul Mwachupa.
Eagerly read Nation coverage
in those days were pictures of a
young and vibrant South African
songbird, Miriam Makeba, who
took part in Kenya’s 1963 independence day celebrations, along
with the famous American, Harry
Belafonte. What a gig that was!
Her first attempt at singing
Malaika was at the request of
Tom Mboya. He jotted down the
words and she sang them with
great aplomb. The Daily Nation
recorded the great event and its
rapturous reception in words and
pictures.
Makeba collapsed and died in
November 2008 during a tour of
Italy, but she will always be remembered here for Malaika as
much as Pole Mzee, which she
dedicated to Mzee Jomo Kenyatta
after his release from detention.
As for Daudi Kabaka, renowned
for his Helule song (picked up
and recorded by a British band),
Kenyans will probably remember
him for his patriotic song, Harambee Harambee, which was used
as a newscast signature tune for
Voice of Kenya/Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.
Kabaka, who performed alongside Fadhili William, Peter Tsotsi
and Gabriel Omollo in the Equator Sounds Band, was regularly
reported on in Taifa Leo. He was
famous for Msichana Mrembo
but also took part in recording
Pole Musa.
Veterans of the 1960s will recall David Amunga particularly
for Journey from America to Africa and Jane is Pretty. Amunga
throughout the years was a keen
advocate against piracy through
various organisations.
Veteran TV comedians Mzee
Pembe, Mama Toffi, Kipanga
were amply profiled in both
Daily Nation and Taifa Leo, as
was veteran actor Joseph Olita
who played the starring role of
the dictator in the 1981 movie
Amin: The Rise and Fall. Most
of this movie, directed by Sharad
Patel, was shot in Kenya. Olita
also played the part of Amin in
the 1991 Hollywood movie Mississippi Masala.
The Nation covered the origins
of Benga music, from the Lake
Victoria region, in which Daniel
Owino Misiani, Ochieng Nelly,
“Dr” Collela Mazee, George
Ramogi and others played major
roles. Benga was later to provide
an inspiration to world-famous
Lingala musicians. The invasion from Democratic Republic
of Congo through Uganda of
musiciansians seeking greener
pastures. Others kept moving
between Tanzania and Kenya.
Also in the Nation archives
is the story of Tanzanian music.
There were musicians and pop
groups which fled the socialist re-
Veteran actor Joseph Olita played the
starring role of the dictator in the 1981
movie Amin: The Rise and Fall
50 GOLDEN YEARS LI
DAILY NATION
Celebrity culture
takes root in media
By PHILIP MWANIKI
K
TOP: Franco
Luambo Luanzo Makiadi of
Congo DRC at
a concert in
Nairobi.
ABOVE: The
legendary
Fundi Konde
NMG ARCHIVES
1973 - 1979
1973 - 1979
gime to make money in capitalist
Kenya, such as Mbaraka Mwinshehe and Simba Wanyika.
In 1996 came the huge Nation/
House of Manji Benga music extravaganza at the Nyayo National
Stadium. To get in you needed either a copy of Taifa Jumapili or a
packet of House of Manji biscuits.
The show was a platform for exposure to leading Benga musicians like the late Okach Biggy
and Heka Heka Band, Princess
Jully , DO Misiani and Sukuma
Bin Ongaro.
Veteran broadcaster and music
promoter Fred Obachi Machoka
praised the entertainment coverage of the Daily Nation. “We
have been able to keep up to date
with most of the happenings on
the entertainment scene over the
years,” he said. Popular music
apart, the Daily Nation has also
been involved, since the 1990s, in
the sponsorship of schools drama
and music festivals.
Mzee Tamaa
M
r Peter Lukoye (above) was active
for decades as a radio and television
comedian. He will be remembered
as a writer with the Nation Media Group who
wrote a popular column in Taifa Leo “Viumbe
Vinavyoishi “. The gifted comedian once said:
“My greatest challenge as a journalist has been
the move from the old typewriter to the computer.’’ Between 1966 and 1977, he acted in
Korti ya Kiberenge, Kivunja Mbavu and Vioja
Mahakamani. All these were covered in the
Daily Nation and Taifa Leo.
The trio that thrilled us on telly
V
eteran TV comedians
Mzee Pembe (Omari
Suleiman), Mama
Toffi (Fatuma Saleh) and
Kipanga (Kipanga Athumani) who tickled TV viewers
were also profiled in both
Daily Nation and Taifa Leo.
The trio were popular in the
1960s and the 1970s with
programmes such as “Kivunja Mbavu”, Cheka na Kipanga” and “Jamii ya Mzee
Pembe
The popularity of the programmes was mainly based
on the social themes touching on family issues.
Before independence,
they were among the first
Africans alongside Mzee
Tamaa Bin Tamaa (Peter Lukoye) and the Frank Sisters
from Tanzania to perform
plays when television was
launched in Kenya in 1962.
One of their first appearances was in the show “Top Life”.
Among other popular
programmes were Vioja
Mahakamani, Vitimbi, Fedheha and Kazi Bure and others. Some leading comedians in these shows include
Mzee Ojwang Hatari (Benson Wanjau), Mama Kayai
(Mary Khavere) and Mgongo
Mture. Radio listeners will
also remember the hilarious
Job Isaac Mwamto who presented the popular “Porojo”
radio programme on the
then VOK radio.
Many of the older Kenyan
listeners will recall his witty
humour.
enyans once looked
up to the heroes of
yesteryear—the Mau
Mau freedom fighters, the
Second Liberation warriors,
musicians such as Daudi
Kabaka and Fadhili Williams, brilliant footballers
like Joe Kadenge and actors
like Mzee Ojwang and Mama
Kayai.
But, with time, the Kabaka generation was brushed
aside by new kids on the
block —Nameless, Hardstone, 5 Alive, Redykyulass,
Kalamashaka, Prezzo and
Nikki.
Nation Media Group, embraced the new look showbiz
and the celebrity culture was
in. From the 1990s, the Nation has dedicated more and
more pages to entertainers.
It started off as two pages,
but the fans of celebrities
wanted more. They wanted a
relationship with their stars.
They wanted to delve into
their lives and lifestyle. They
wanted to know what their
pet peeves were and who
they were dating, marrying
or divorcing.
Media personalities had
their own stage. Hamisi
Themo, Nguata Francis, Elizabeth Omollo, Ann Wafula
and Ken Obachi Machoka
were viewed strictly as professionals. This new breed
had star quality.
The Nation granted the new stars
more space on its
pages. Out were the
two pages, in came
Young Nation. The
fans could now read
about their favourite
stars’ fears, ambitions
and even hitherto wellkept secrets. People could relate to them better through
the pages of the Nation. The
stars used those same pages
to promote their gigs. They
hyped their upcoming albums and they saw sales
go up.
It was a two-way relationship and a generational shift
from traditional celebrities
whose claim to fame was
that they could sing, look
good on television or sound
nice on radio.
Soon, other entertainment magazines arrived
Performing artist Prezzo
on the scene. But none were
really as exclusive to celebrities as Buzz, a free magazine
that came with the Sunday
paper. This was the home of
celebrities.
The public loved it and
sales climbed. The magazine set the standard and the
topic. You cannot talk about
the Kenyan entertainment
industry and fail to mention
Buzz, which heralded a new
era in “celebville” and covered every detail about the
celebrities and their art.
As Buzz concentrated on
celebrities, there was still a
neglected audience out there
and the Nation soon came
up with ZuQka, a weekly
lifestyle and entertainment
magazine. The mature yet
still celebrity-hungry group
who would rather listen to
Eric Wainaina than Jimwat
and Mejja found their place
here. This generation ushered in the celebrity craze
in the 1990s and can hardly
keep up today with the fast
rising young stars.
Through the Nation,
Kenya has a vibrant entertainment industry and even
the corporate world is taking
notice. Where it used to be
only “real” heroes who were
awarded Presidential awards
and medals of honour, that
list now boasts names such
as Eric Wainaina.
[email protected]
dia.com
LII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
TRAINING
DAILY NATION
MEDIA LAB
Getting home a
healthy message
to the media
B
ACK IN 2003, while organising my first HIV/
Aids print reporting
workshop in Accra, Ghana,
I could not have predicted
the extraordinary impact it
would have on my career. I
also could not have dreamed
the experience would eventually lead me to East Africa
during a time of unparalleled
achievement and promise
for one of the most vibrant
media companies on the African continent.
At the time, I was a reporter
for National Public Radio in
Washington, DC, focusing
primarily on social policy affecting poor Americans. Ironically, what I was doing in the
US wound up fuelling my African journey. As a woman
born in poverty in the richest
nation in the world, I became
a journalist because I wanted
to explore and illuminate the
reasons why so many Americans were still struggling. I
also wanted to help improve
access to the basics of the
“American Dream” — education, health care, employment
and so on. It was a lofty goal,
but I was determined to help
“give voice to the voiceless”.
Fast forward seven years
to my tenure as a consultant/
trainer for the International
Centre for Journalists, based
at the Nation Media Group in
Nairobi. Through the centre’s
fellowship, I am tasked with
helping improve the coverage of health issues in Kenya
by mentoring and coaching
reporters and working with
editors. When I started in
July 2008, that goal seemed
daunting. Having organised
and conducted reporting
workshops in four different
countries since 2003, I had
more than ample training
experience. But would it be
possible to earn the credibility
to influence the coverage of a
powerful company like Nation
Media Group?
Political reporting is paramount in Kenyan media, as
in many African nations. The
Daily Nation holds claim to
the most comprehensive,
analytical coverage of Kenya’s political upheaval, and
will continue leading the way.
But I was in Kenya to pose an
evocative challenge: Do media
companies have a responsibility to increase coverage of
health issues as a core public
service? Could one woman’s
voice in the wilderness really
make a difference?
If that woman’s voice nags
loud, long and hard enough,
I am pleased to report, it can.
Through my initial presence
at daily news meetings, an online all-staff critique and longterm mentoring and training
of reporters, I can honestly
claim that the Daily Nation
has improved and increased
its coverage of health-related
issues significantly over the
past year and a half. From
a time when health matters
were reported solely through
official press releases, journalists now take the initiative to
develop full-fledged health
features. I have been pleased
with the strengthened writing
and reporting skills of several
staff reporters, and have also
mentored some promising
freelance writers.
There is also more analytical coverage of policy, such as
how government utilises — or
squanders — health cash.
Most importantly, top newsroom editors are now vastly
more willing to prominently
place health-related news. I
could give myriad examples,
but I am probably proudest
of a story about an increase
in childhood obesity that was
on Page 1.
Rachel Jones is a former radio
and print journalist from the
US. She reported on social policy for National Public Radio in
Washington DC, from 1998 to
2007, and for the St. Petersburg Times, the Detroit Free
Press, and the former Knight
Ridder News Service.
Scaling new heights
in training journalists
A class in
progress at
the Media Lab
in Nation
Centre.
the Lab deliberately seeks to recruit graduates of law, security,
social sciences, business and economics, as well as those originally
trained in mass communication.
Underpinning this model is
the fact that consumers of media
products are increasingly discerning, inquisitive, analytical
and sophisticated. They seek information in a form and depth
that not only suit their interests
but satisfies their intellectual
curiosity.
News items that barely scratch
above the surface; that do not
delve deeper into the sub-text,
provide the context or add intellectual spice hardly jell with
readers, viewers or listeners. The
corollary is that news must be
well-grounded and contextualised, hence the increasing need
for subject specialisation and investment in ongoing professional
development.
Training at the Media Lab is
intense and practical. Trainees
are exposed to the art of doing
journalism, and for that matter
doing it thoroughly well. New
and emerging concepts are tested and implemented. Trainers
are a blend of practising journalists and journalism experts.
In-house staff injects experience
and practice.
The trainees routinely go out to
the field with seasoned reporters
to understudy them; learn how
to handle news conferences, ask
right questions, conceptualise
and develop stories, and establish contacts.
Past Media Lab graduates have
demonstrated dynamism, creativity and leadership in their respective fields of specialisation of
deployment. The investment has
not been in vain. Already, one of
the pioneer graduates is heading
a bureau, at Gulu, one of Uganda’s toughest of terrains.
While the Media Lab has proven to be an effective means for
the Nation Media Group to foster and retain its own in-house
talent, its experience has underscored the wider challenges and
capacity gaps that constrain the
role and effectiveness of media in
East Africa. That experience has
also been corroborated by a De-
Past Media Lab graduates have
demonstrated dynamism, creativity and
leadership. Already, one of the pioneer
graduates is heading a bureau, at Gulu,
one of Uganda’s toughest of terrains
cember 2009 study by Dr. Peter
Mwesige, a former Nation training editor, on university-level
journalism, media and communication education in East Africa.
The study identified critical
gaps in basic writing and communication skills; poor analytical skills; and limited specialised
knowledge in key areas such as
business and economics, philosophy, science and technology, and
the arts and culture. As well, few
aspiring and practicing journalists and media managers have
the ability to work across multimedia formats.
And perhaps most troubling,
the study identified significant
gaps in intellectual curiosity, confidence, and ethics and integrity.
As the Nation Media Group
commemorates its 50th anniversary, the Aga Khan Development
Network (AKDN) is planning a
new initiative that will build on
the Nation’s experience, knowledge and resources to provide a
broad institutional platform for
addressing the challenges facing
the media sector in Africa today
– with a mission of fostering a
vibrant, diverse, ethical and professional media that contributes
more effectively to the development, good governance and pluralism of the societies in which it
operates.
Compiled by Gerry Loughran,
David Aduda and Carrie LaPorte
50 GOLDEN YEARS LIII
DAILY NATION
Nation scholars making a mark
To her father, Caroline
Biegon will always be
‘Miss Nation’ following
her four-year scholarship
writer who hopes to publish her
stories some day.
David Scott Omutimba
District: Bungoma
Primary: Lugulugu
Secondary: Alliance High
By WANGUI MAINA
T
o mark 25 years of Nation newspapers, the
company offered fouryear secondary school
scholarships to the best primary
school candidates from the 1985
KCPE exam. Two students, the
best boy and the best girl, would
be selected from every district in
the country.
The following are a selection
of some of the beneficiaries and
where they are now:
Patrick Onyango Sawa
District: Siaya
Primary: Sega Boys
High School: Alliance
Patrick Onyango’s father could
not have met his fees since his
two siblings were also in national schools. After high school, he
joined Moi University and studied
medicine and then University of
London and the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for a diploma.
Now a father of two, he is a
specialist in malaria. His working career began in the Ministry
of Health but he left to join the
International Centre of Insect
Physiology and Ecology on Mbita
Campus, South Nyanza.
He has been published in various peer-reviewed international
journals and has his sight on a
PhD in the near future.
Alice Waithera
Macharia -Njuguna
District: Nyandarua
Primary: Tumaini
Secondary: Limuru
Every month Alice and her colleagues contribute money to a
kitty that goes to help a needy
student. They have been doing
this for the past six years and
help students at KCA University,
where she is Dean of the Faculty of Science and Information
Technology. She holds a Masters
in Science – computer based information systems – from the
University of Sunderland, UK. A
mother of three, she is currently
studying for a PhD in IT.
Mary Madumadu
District: Embu
Primary: Sacred Heart
Kyeni
Secondary: Alliance
Dr Mary Madumadu is a doctor
at Gertrude’s Garden Children’s
Hospital, and at the Outpatient
Centre in the central business
district. On completing school,
she joined the University of Nairobi for a degree in medicine. She
later mastered in Neurodevelopment at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Her specialisation in neurodevelopment has seen her work with
children who have autism and
cerebral palsy.
Mugambi Kiai
District: Nyeri
Primary: Nyeri Primary
School
Secondary: Alliance
Mugambi supports democracy,
human rights and governance in
the East African region. He has a
law degree and went to Harvard
Law School for a Masters in International Human Rights Law.
From Harvard, Mr Kiai went into
private consultancy before joining the Canadian International
Development Agency as a senior
programme officer. Currently he
is with Open Society Initiative
for East Africa in charge of Africa governance project.
Naeem Samnakay scored 531 points out of 600 in KCPE and scored an average
A in the 10 subjects he took in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in 1989
and went to the University of Western Australia in Perth to pursue his dream of
being a doctor graduating in 1997.
Florence Neema Mturi
District: Mombasa
Primary: Aga Khan
Secondary: Alliance Girls
Neema Mturi received a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in
1997 from University of Nairobi.
After her MBA, she began her career at the Coast Provincial General Hospital and worked with
Kemri-Wellcome Trust Research
Programme in Kilifi as a medical officer.
Caroline Biegon
District: Kericho
Primary: Sirigoi
Secondary: Mary Hill
Caroline Biegon is currently at
Kabarnet High School in Baringo, teaching German as a foreign
language. She is also an aspiring
He graduated from the University of Nairobi with dental surgery in 1996 and was employed
by the Ministry of Health for 10
years before moving into full
time teaching. The father of one
lecturers at the school of dentistry at his old alma mater, Moi.
Godfrey Allan Otieno
District: Mombasa
Primary: Ziwani
Secondary: Maseno High
Now a specialist in paediatrics and child health, he was
undaunted by student riots and
lecturers’ strikes in the mid 90s
that caused a seven-year delay,
Godfrey was finally granted his
much coveted degree in medicine
in 1997. He currently works as
a paediatrician and research officer in Kisumu.
Naeem Samnakay
District: Kisumu
Primary: Aga Khan
Secondary: Alliance High
Naeem topped the first KCPE
exams in 1985 and four years
later, he again topped the 1989
Fourth Form final exams after
scoring an average A in 10 subjects. He went to the University
of Western Australia in Perth to
study medicine. The father of
three now works as a consultant paediatric surgeon and paediatirc urologist at the Princess
Margaret Hospital for Children
in Perth, Australia.
Millicent Kavugila
District: Siaya
Primary: Mulaha
Secondary: Limuru Girls
Dida Roba
District: Marsabit
Primary: St Mary’s
Secondary: Mangu
Dida Roba has come a long way
from top male student in Marsabit to head of systems operations
at K-Rep bank, where he oversees
IT service and infrastructure security.
He is helping set up a community trust fund to sponsor deserving Moyale students. Dida
has a Bachelor of Science in civil
engineering from the University
of Nairobi. For a year he served as
an assistant engineer in the Ministry of Public Works .
Adilla N. Anyanzwa
District: Kisumu
Primary: Kisumu Union
Secondary: Alliance
Adila joined Moi University
in 1990 and graduated with a
Bachelor of Education degree
in home science and technology.
She has taught in many secondary schools in Western Kenya.
In 2001, she joined the University of East Africa, Baraton, for
a Masters degree in education.
This year, the mother of two
moved to Rift Valley Technical
Training Institute as lecturer in
the department of institutional
management.
Onesmus Kamau Kagwanja
District: Muranga
Primary: Kihoya
Secondary: Mangu
Murang’a was the only district
out of 41 that had three scholars
and Onesmus was one of them.
After his final primary school
exam in Kihoya primary school,
he was admitted to Mang’u and
later to Moi University, from
where he graduated with a degree in engineering. However, he
has never worked as an engineer.
Three years ago, he and some colleagues started Verviant, which
outsources software to small and
medium enterprises.
Millicent Kavugila works at
Techno Brain, an international IT
company. She went to Kenyatta
University where she graduated
with a Bachelor of Education in
Science degree.
She went off to teach but
switched her career to information technology.
She became a training consultant at the Institute of Advanced
Technology. A couple of years
later she moved to Izon Future
Systems and Techno Brain Limited and worked in Enterprise
Resource Panning.
She has worked in a range of
organisations in Africa as a consultant.
LIV | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
1965
The rapid rise of
Kipchoge Keino
K
enya’s sensational
athlete Kipchoge
Keino knocked sixand-a-half seconds off the
3,000 metres world record
in Halsingborg, Sweden,
Keino clocked 7mins 39.5
seconds in the race, astonishing a delighted crowd
at the Scandinavian meeting. East German Seigfried Hermann had set
the record only a week
earlier and no one had expected it to fall so quickly
or so definitively. When
Keino left Nairobi at the
beginning of the week,
he told reporters that his
main ambition was to
break a world record to
add to his two gold medals from the recent All
Africa Games; he did just
break the record but shattered it. Second place runner Britain’s Geoff North
took over eight minutes to
complete the course, a full
20 seconds behind Keino.
The policeman’s achievement was particularly special for, without someone
pushing behind you, it is
very hard to run at your
best. “This implies that he
could do even better,” said
an Amateur Athlettics Association statement.
President Kenyatta sent
a message to Sweden,
hailing the achievement:
“Many congratulations
on breaking world record
for 3,000,” said the telegram “By this great
achievement, you
have put Kenya
on the map of
world sport.
Government
of Kenya is
very proud of
your record.”
RECOLLECTIONS
Fifty yea≥s of cove≥ing spo≥ting ex
The country owes much of its reputation to
its talented runners— Kipchoge, Temu, Biwott
By HEZ WEPUKHULU
I
n the half-century since the
Nation first saw the light of
day, much has happened in
the field of sport. Kenya has enjoyed success not only in athletics, its traditional strength, but
also in football, rugby, boxing,
basketball, swimming, cycling,
cricket, hockey, motor racing,
horse racing, tennis, volleyball
and netball.
The country owes much of its
reputation to its talented runners,
including the legendary Kipchoge
Keino, Naftalli Temu, Amos Biwott, Julius Sang, Charles Asati,
Henry Rono, Moses Kiptanui,
John Ngugi and Paul Tergat.
Since writing my first story for
Taifa in 1961, I have reported on
many great sporting events, including the 1962 Commonwealth
Games in Perth, Australia, and
the Fifa 1974 World Cup in West
Germany.
Back then we relied on cables
and teleprinters to file our stories
and the delays were unendurable.
I remember that one of my dis-
1968 - 1972
AUGUST 27,
DAILY NATION
Kenya’s twotime Olympic
gold medallist, Kipchoge
Keino, the
first Kenyan
to break a
track world
record.
patches from Perth did not reach
Nairobi until after I returned
home.
It was vastly different in Germany 12 years later. Football
matches were covered in detail
by the international news agencies, to which the major Kenyan
newspapers subscribed, so my job
was to write a personal report on
the aftermath, requiring in-depth
analysis of the game.
I actually travelled to West
Germany as a representative of
the then East African Standard
(where I worked before joining
the Nation) and the Nation itself was represented by its senior
sports writer, Norman da Costa.
Among the games I remember was the closely fought final
between West Germany and Holland which the hosts won 2-1, to
claim the coveted trophy at the
Olympic Stadium in Munich.
Back home, I covered local and
regional football including the
Gossage Cup, precursor to the
East and Central Africa Senior
Challenge Cup, the Remington
Cup and the Kenya National
Organised sport in Kenya did not begin
in any serious way until after the Second World War. Today sport is largely
about money. No soccer player is ready
to change and take to the field unless he
is well paid and kitted out
Pele ve≥sus Matiba
Pele, the world’s greatest football player,
left Kenya for Uganda at the end of a tour
mired in controversy and recrimination.
Kenneth Matiba — the chairman of the
Kenya Football Federation — jeopardised
the visit by having a spat with one of Pele’s
entourage; it almost led to the Brazilian
World Cup star cutting short his groundbreaking trip. The incident happened at
a reception welcoming Pele to Kenya:
Matiba was upset because he had not
been consulted about tour arrangements
and approached Steve Richards of drinks
group Pepsico about the subject. Pepsico
was sponsoring the tour.
It was understood that Richards, a British
former sports reporter, told Matiba that
he had not been consulted regarding arrangements for Pele’s visit here because
Matiba was “just a publicity seeker”. Richards was promptly dismissed and flown
back to London, but the sacking did not
satisfy Matiba, who announced KFF’s
complete withdrawal and dissociation
from all arrangements made for Pele. At a
press conference, Matiba said: “We place
the blame squarely on the organisers of
his programme. No doubt they will wish
to explain why they chose to have things
entirely their own way in complete disregard of opinions from Kenyan authorities
— both Government and soccer administration.”
Pele’s opinion was clear. “It is my belief
the blame lies squarely on Mr Matiba’s
shoulders,”
Brazil’s Pele, voted the World Footballer of the Century, shows off some of his dazzling skills at Jamhuri Park during his tour of Kenya in 1971.
50 GOLDEN YEARS LV
DAILY NATION
exellence
ABOVE: Charles
“Fundi” Onyango
(right) led Gor
Mahia to their first
continental cup
victory, the Africa
Cup Winners’ Cup,
in 1987.
Football League, which was introduced in 1964, the qualifying
rounds of the African Nations Cup
and the regional inter-club competitions which Kenya hosted at
different times.
Kenyan track stars, rugby players and women’s volleyball players have subsequently left an indelible impression on the world
stage, though development has
been slower in other sporting
areas.
That said, it must be remembered that organised sport in
Kenya did not begin in any serious way until after the Second
World War. Today sport is largely
about money. No soccer player is
ready to change and take to the
field unless he is well paid and
kitted out. In the past, sportsmen and women were happy and
proud to wear the national colours and play for love of game.
The demand for money and
huge allowances seems sadly
to be here to stay.
Former world marathon record holder and three-time world
half marathon champion Tegla Loroupe was the first African
woman to win the New York Marathon in 1994.
ABOVE: In a span
of 81 days in 1978,
Henry Rono (353)
broke four world
records in the
10,000m, 5,000m,
3,000m steeplechase
and 3,000m flat!
LEFT: Five times
World Cross Country
Champion John Ngugi
(second left) won
Kenya an Olympic
gold in the 5,000m in
Seoul in 1988.
RIGHT: Dennis Oliech
(right) was the first
Kenyan to play in one
of the “Big Five” European football leagues
when he signed for
Nantes in the French
league in 2005.
LVI | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
LEISURE
Juha Kalulu, 60 yea≥s and counting
Gitau is an ordinary fellow who
has done extraordinary work in
shaping cartooning landscape
By DOROTHY JEBET
Y
ou can’t do anything
about the length of your
life, but you can do something about its width
and depth — Shira Tehrani
This motivational quote sums
up the width and depth of the
past six decades that have seen
Edward Gicheeri Gitau churn out
his comic strip, Juha Kalulu.
His fans call him Juha Kalulu
because they think that is his real
name. “Even my own children
call me Juha Kalulu,” says the veteran cartoonist with a twinkle in
his eyes.
Gitau is an ordinary fellow who
has done extraordinary work
in shaping the cartooning landscape in East Africa and Kenya in
particular.
At 80, he is still drawing. It all
started when he fell 25 feet while
working as an electrician with the
Ministry of Public Works in 1950.
The fall broke his arm and it was
10 months before he could use a
screw-driver again. “That fall really scared me. I never went back
to fixing electrical wires,” he says.
Edward
Gicheeri
Gitau, aka
Juha Kalulu, with his
brush and a
copy of his
work.
‘Nation Man’ title
I wear with pride
As he lay in what is now
Kenyatta National Hospital, he
began to think more and more
about cartoons. In March 1951.
he joined the Fine Art Photo Engravers Company and made his
cartoon debut working for six
months for the weekly newspaper, Jicho.
When Jicho folded, he moved
to another weekly, Tazama, and
when that went to the wall, Gitau
joined Baraza, a Kiswahili weekly published by the East African
among Taifa Leo readers and if
for any reason the cartoon strip
is not published, there is uproar
among readers. “If we fail to publish for a single day, there will be
no peace for the newsroom,” said
Gitau started drawing cartoon when he fell
25 feet while working as an electrician with
the Ministry of Public Works in 1950. The
fall broke his arm and it was 10 months before he could use a screw-driver again
Successes and p≥oblems of Kiswahili newspape≥s
By NATION REPORTER
By FRED NDUNGU
I was 20 and the Nation group six years old
when I joined Taifa as a reporter in 1966.
For the next 27 years I pounded away at my
Olivetti typewriter, mostly in the smoky,
noisy, sauna that was Nation House in
those days.
But the Olivettis went the way of all the
old technology when the Atex system arrived. There was resistance from a few reporters, but it was soon overcome.
Of the people I worked with, I have fond
memories of my immediate boss, friendly
George Mbugguss, the serious sub-editor,
Harry Sambo, humorous Edwin Omori
and mischievous Njoroge wa Karuri, all of
whom are now departed.
I also remember the erudite Phillip
Ochieng, hawk-eye photographer Joseph
Thuo, fearless editor Joe Kadhi, quiet
Wainaina Kiganya and born-again editor’s
secretary Irene Karanja.
It is 14 years since I retired, but my
heart is still with the Nation, which I read
every morning. The people in my village of
Kinoo, just outside Nairobi, call me, “The
Nation man.” It’s a title I wear with pride.
Standard group. In 1960, Baraza
followed Tazama into oblivion,
but not Juha Kalulu. Another
small weekly was on the streets
called Taifa, later to become the
Nation group’s Kiswahili daily,
Taifa Leo, and Gitau and his
popular character, Juha Kalulu,
pitched tent. It was a partnership that has lasted 50 years,
and counting. All said and done,
Juha Kalulu is himself all of 60
years old.
He has a huge following
Taifa Leo’s Deputy Chief Sub, Mr
George Migwi.
Mr Gitau’s cartoon has seen
him rub shoulders with the
mighty of the land. He met Mzee
Kenyatta at his home in Gatundu immediately after his release
from detention in 1961 and gave
him a symbolic water colour of a
Maasai Moran spearing a lion.
The retired Catholic Archbishop Mwana Nzeki is one of Gitau’s
friends, not to mention President
Kibaki who wrote the preface for
one of Mr Gitau’s three cartoon
booklets in 1978 when he was
Minister for Finance.
Eight years later, Mr Joseph
Kamotho, then Higher Education
Minister, prefaced the second
cartoon strip. “My third cartoon
strip was prefaced by Mr George
Muhoho, Minister for Tourism,
Science and Technology,” Gitau
says. Even with modern information communication technologies, Gitau has no qualms about
his traditional method of manual
cartooning.
Taifa Leo occupies a special place
not only in the NMG stable, but,
more importantly, in Kenya as
the only remaining Kiswahili
language newspaper.
It marked the Nation Group’s
arrival in the country in 1959,
when the founding company, Nation Newspapers Ltd., acquired a
weekly paper called Taifa from
Charles Hayes and Althea Tebbutt, two former employees of
the colonial government’s Information Department.
After a few months at Nation
House in Tom Mboya Street, Nairobi, Taifa became a daily, Taifa
Leo, leading the way to the English-language Sunday Nation and
then the Daily Nation in 1960.
Taifa Leo, like the English papers, pressed the fight for the
release of Jomo Kenyatta and
early independence, which was
achieved in December 1963.
The daily, eight pages, rising
to 16 and then beyond, became
a unifying factor among Kenyans at a time of rising literacy
levels and circulation soared, especially in the rural areas. A Sunday product was added, Taifa Jumapili, and additional sections,
including sports news, fattened
the product.
In the 1970s, Taifa Leo began
to experience competition from
the English newspapers, including its own stablemate, the Daily
Nation. The problem was that in
the face of commercial and educational imperatives, ever more
Kenyans learned to read English,
which had already been declared
the official language.
The role of the indigenous lingua franca as a uniting factor in a
country by then secure in its own
sovereignty became irrelevant.
Commercially, the purchasing power of Kiswahili-speaking Kenyans was also less than
among the English speakers,
with deleterious effects on ad-
vertising revenue. Strong competition came from Kiswahili
FM radio stations, which mushroomed over the last 10 years.
Because many stations reported
and analysed Taifa Leo content
over the air, readers began to
abandon the newspaper itself.
Loyal readers of Taifa Leo
today are mostly above 45, posing an obvious challenge to attract new, youthful, progressive
(and usually English-speaking)
readers.
Questions about the relevance
and future of Taifa Leo as a newspaper seem to focus on the continuing strength of Kiswahili
and the paper’s niche as the only
remaining one in Kiswahili in
Kenya.
Its supporters say Taifa Leo
has unique content that makes
it a viable alternative source of
news and entertainment.
Market research has discovered loyal readership among
Kiswahili-speaking communi-
ties at the Coast and in country’s
urban centres.
Investigators have also established that Taifa Leo is the highest placed and most respected
Kiswahili newspaper in the
world, making it key reference
material for teachers, students,
scholars and researchers, both
locally and internationally.
However, industry experts believe that while Taifa Leo’s print
version remains relevant, there
is a need to take the paper to the
next level, that is, online.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website has an
option of news in Kiswahili,
which is fast gaining a following. Five years ago, Google also
launched a Kiswahili website
under domain KE in order to
reach a wider audience.
Kiswahili has been integrated
by various international websites
including social sites such as Facebook, prompting more people
to surf in Kiswahili.
50 GOLDEN YEARS LVII
DAILY NATION
RECOLLECTIONS
Reporting for
Kenya from UK
By PAUL REDFERN
W
Nation starts to look
beyond the borders
D
EBT-FREE AND buoyant at the end of 2002,
the Nation Media Group
took steps to implement a board
commitment to pursue “other opportunities beyond our current
area of operations” and turned
its attention to its neighbours in
Uganda and Tanzania.
Having already acquired a
feisty, but hard-up, Kampala tabloid, The Monitor, NMG launched
a radio station, Monitor FM 93.3,
to capture the prime Uganda audience for news and entertainment. It won a starting audience
share of 2 per cent against 11 per
cent for the top Uganda station,
but added to Monitor Publications Ltd’s fiscal burdens.
For its part, the newspaper experienced constant difficulties
with a government not used to
being questioned and challenged
in detail by the media. An irony
inherent in the situation was
that NMG had been invited into
Uganda by President Yoweri Museveni himself.
Similarly in Tanzania, President Benjamin Mkapa, dismayed
by the quality of existing media,
inquired if the Nation group
would be interested in bringing
quality journalism to Tanzania.
Prolonged negotiations led to
the acquisition of rights to Mwananchi Communications Ltd,
which published three titles in
Kiswahili and held a 51 per cent
interest in Radio Uhuru.
Germane to NMG’s moves was
the belief that conditions were
ripe for a revival of East African links. The East African Federation had died but it was clear
that a new five-nation grouping
of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda,
Rwanda and Burundi, involving
150 million people, could prove a
significant force in the continent.
The group began to think of itself,
in words that were to become an
in-house mantra, as “the media of
Africa for Africa”.
To facilitate this, the Nation group was placed under
the umbrella of the Aga Khan
Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), which was restructured to include a division
entitled Media Promotion Services. Operating widely as a significant presence in Africa and
Central and South Asia, the Fund
also had sectors for financial
The group began to think of itself, in
words that were to become an in-house
mantra, as “the media of Africa for Africa”.
services, industry, tourism and
aviation.
It was felt that the group’s future would best be assured by
institutionalising what was previously the Aga Khan’s personal
investment. Thus his 23.9 million
shares, representing 44.73 per
cent of the group’s ownership,
were transferred to AKFED.
By 2005, with 15 media products under its wing, NMG ranked
number six on the Nairobi Stock
Exchange. It had radio, television, newspaper and magazine
products in both Kenya and
Uganda and though it had closed
Uhuru Radio in Tanzania, it had
started a rare English-language
newspaper there, The Citizen.
Looking farther afield, executives acknowledged that to
become the most authoritative
media about Africa meant physically operating outside of their
current area. A business development unit was set up and research began into target areas
such as the English-speaking
countries of Africa followed by
Francophone and Portuguesespeaking territories. To facilitate
quality journalism in these areas
in the future, plans were laid for
the establishment of a Graduate
School of Media and Communications of the Aga Khan University in East Africa. The aim was to
provide the necessary academic
capacity and lead research on
media issues.
Aquisition
of Monitor,
Uganda:
Despite the
fact that NMG
was invited
to Uganda
by President
Museveni,
NMG soon ran
into trouble
with a govenrnment not
used to being
challenged
and questioned
hen I spotted an
advertisement in
The Guardian in
the late 80s for a full-time
UK-based correspondent for
the Nation, I was intrigued.
Working with the development agency Christian Aid,
I already travelled to Kenya
periodically.
Thus when an advert was
published, I was already in
a sense hooked on Kenya. I
joined in 1990 and my role in
London was swiftly clear: To
write the things that were not
being said in Kenya.
Scotland Yard was called
in when the then Foreign
Minister, Dr Robert Ouko,
was murdered but the Kenya
government failed to publish
the report of the investigation by Chief Superintendent
John Troon, which remained
shrouded in mystery.
It took time, but eventually
Troon agreed to meet me. He
then spelled out, in a series of
interviews for The EastAfrican, how and why his inquiries were thwarted.
The man who led the pluralism campaign of that era
was Kenneth Matiba, then
ill and recovering in London. When I first met him,
he was still having trouble
with his speech but his mind
was crystal clear. In exclusive
interviews he spelled out his
vision.
When he eventually flew
back to Nairobi, a huge
crowd gathered at the airport to greet him. By then,
multi-partyism had become
a reality and Matiba entered
the battle against President
Moi in the 1992 election. But
with the opposition unable to
agree on a single contender,
the anti-Kanu vote was split
and Moi was returned to
power. It was 2002 before a
new era dawned under President Mwai Kibaki.
He faced an immediate
problem.
Vice-President
Michael Wamalwa was
known to be in London, his
return to Kenya constantly
postponed. Speculation was
rife that he was dying and
the Nation newsdesk wanted me to find out what was
happening. Wamalwa’s aides
kept promising me an interview at his London hospital,
but then kept backing down.
Paul Redfern
I turned up anyway, in time to
see a group of solemn Kenyan
politicians leaving his room.
Had he died? I was told he
was resting and would see
me in time.
I waited…and waited. I said
I had to go and would write
what I had seen. They said,
Come and see him. Wamala
had not died but was unable
to speak. He was drifting back
to sleep and was clearly seriously ill. He died a few days
later.
I was glad to convey the
truth to Kenyans, though it
was hard to rejoice in my
privileged access.
In the spring of 2008,
Prime Minister Raila Odinga
led a ministerial delegation
to London for governmentto-government meetings.
One scene springs to mind.
The delegation was booked
into a central London hotel
to address UK-based Kenyans
and the media. But they had
seriously under-estimated the
numbers. The result was like
the “black hole of Calcutta”
with thousands struggling to
get into an airless basement
conference room designed for
a few hundred people.
It has not all been politics.
In the early 1990s, an investment conference was held for
Kenya in London. The guest
speaker was President Moi,
who was introduced by the
then deputy British Prime
Minister, Michael Heseltine.
The briefing by his civil
servants was clearly not all
it should have been since
Heseltine referred to Kenya’s
leader throughout as “President Mwa”, apparently in the
belief Kenya was a Frenchspeaking nation.
Paul Redfern has been the
Nation correspondent in the
UK for 20 years.
LVIII | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
Nation moves to Kimathi street
The shift from Nation
House to Nation Centre
wasn’t just about distance,
it was about nostalgia,
about bridging the
technological divide
By KEN OPALA
M
oving the Daily Nation
and Taifa from Nation
House in busy, bustling Tom Mboya Street to the ultramodern, multi-storey Nation
Centre on Kimathi Street, was a
logistical nightmare.
It was just a street away, a distance of only 200 metres (which
Usain Bolt could demolish in
under 20 seconds), but it took
days of physical movement. It
unleashed a rush of emotions
and exposed reporters to a huge
technological test.
The date was June 5, 1992. Nation, the leading media house in
east and central Africa, was moving out of its abode into a new
16-storey architectural marvel.
“Turning a Page” is how the Daily
Nation captured its own relocation, in its front page.
“It was a great moment, like
the Biblical move from Egypt to
Canaan,” said Bob Okoth, then
deputy managing editor of Taifa
Leo. “On that day most of our
work got delayed. We couldn’t
meet our deadlines.”
Emman Omari, then Political
Editor, captured the excitement
thus, “It was like moving into a
new home, like moving house
from Eastleigh to Runda.”
Some Nation staffers took days
to accept that they had shifted
base. A story goes that the then
chief sub-editor of Taifa Leo,
Obere Akaranga, went for lunch
after Nation moved. On the way
back to the office, he found himself heading automatically for the
old Nation House.
The shift from Nation House to
Nation Centre wasn’t just about
distance, it was about nostalgia,
about bridging the technological
divide (discarding the typewriter
for the new gizmo), about abandoning a long, low, two-storey
building for a massive, self-contained, two-towered home. It was
a requiem for the Telex machine,
whose clacking noise awoke the
newsroom (when it sparked into
life you knew a new international
story had arrived!)
It was nostalgic because “31odd years cannot be wiped off
the slate of a lifetime, forgotten
just like that,” as George Mbugguss, then the Nation’s Group
Above: The
new imposing
entrance to
Nation Centre
just before it
was officially
opened.
Right:
A street
view of the
old Nation
house on Tom
Mboya street
with the ‘twin
towers’ still
under construction
towering in
the background.
EXTREME
RIGHT:
Martin
Muumbo
Muyanga,
Business systems Manager, then in IT
systems engineer and Kibe
Kamunyu,
Quality control Editor
then Chief
Sub Editor,
Daily Nation
Managing Editor, noted. “The
new home was not just another
building, but a landmark that became the talk of the town.”
For some staff, the move was
apocalyptic. The new office disallowed smoking, so it was tough
for those used to puffing on a
cigarette while hitting the typewriter keys.
And then there was the Atex
computer, a system tailored for
Nation’s in-house use which
turned around the way the
newspaper was produced. With
Atex, the newspapers would be
produced centrally (the same
machine would be used for filing stories, editing, design and
lay-out). It rendered typesetting
irrelevant. Soft-spoken Briton
Nick Chitty, helped to run Atex
and would fret when there was
any breakdown in the system,
while working with his IT colleagues on the fourth floor, Martin Muyanga and Dave Orwa.
Yet for many correspondents, Atex was difficult. Kibe
Kamunyu, chief sub-editor of
the Daily Nation, would spike
(kill) our stories as we worked
on them. Here was technology
that enabled the boss to trash
your story even before you were
through writing it!
Atex was magic. But there
was apprehension, as usual with
new technology. For obvious reasons, some staff foresaw massive
sackings with the advent of the
computer. The prediction never
came to pass. “To some journalists, it was a matter of ‘better the
devil you know than the devil
you don’t,’” declared a group IT
expert who worked at the old
office. “Whereas the production
department embraced the new
technology very quickly the editorial department appeared less
enthusiastic. There was some
fear. It was hardly surprising.”
Plans to move house had been
in the pipeline since 1988. The
company was in dire need of
more space to introduce new
products – magazines, more
newspapers (such as the The
EastAfrican) -- and set up TV
and radio space. The old newsroom was squeezed and next to
the newsroom was a crammed library headed by Charles Mallei.
According to the Daily Nation of July 16, 1992, the birth
of Nation Centre started in 1988
when the owners of the centre,
Industrial Promotion Buildings,
decided to build for the city and
themselves a modern communications centre that would also
house their head offices.
“The 73-metre building is
made up of reinforced concrete
frame structure to withstand
earthquakes in accordance with
local conditions,” the statement
said. “Columns are used both
for structural and aesthetic effect. The total floor area is 21,500
square metres, including the
basement. The three basements,
well below the foundations of adjacent structures, had to be excavated with great care to ensure
the safety of other buildings in
the vicinity. The structural steel
mast rises from the third floor
to a height of over 81 metres and
acts as a focal element for the
building,” the write-up shows.
And in another commemoration of the relocation, A.H
Rashid, the then chairman of
Industrial Promotion Buildings,
observed: “The Twin Towers sitting on top of the podium provide
a panoramic view of the city and
has a noise-free atmosphere. The
building has a comprehensive
fire fighting system, including
an automatic sprinkler system in
the car parking areas.
For some staff, the move was apocalyptic.
The new office disallowed smoking, so it
was tough for those used to puffing on
a cigarette while hitting the typewriter
keys at the Tom Mboya Street office
50 GOLDEN YEARS LIX
DAILY NATION
Giving back to the
community becomes
a way of life
After the success of the Aberdare project, the
company turned its attention to the Mau
H
aving grown from small
beginnings through
tough times to great
things, the Nation was keenly
aware of the debt to its early,
loyal core readership of ordinary
Kenyan Africans.
Thus, seeking to give back
something to the community,
the Nation Media Group adopted a policy of Corporate Social
Responsibility, one of whose
flagship projects was the SaveA-Life-Fund. Partnering with
East African Breweries and
Standard Chartered Bank, it
was launched in the 1990s. The
programme saved the lives of
thousands of people faced with
hunger. It was re-launched in
2008 to help victims of the postelection violence.
The company’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy goes
beyond feeding the hungry.
A keynote project was helping
to fence off the Aberdares mountain range, one of the country’s
five water towers, north of the
capital city.
The range is the water catchment for Sasumua and Ndakaini
dams, which provide most of the
water for Nairobi. Before NMG
came into the picture, joining
hands with the charity organisation Rhino Ark, the range
was rapidly losing its cover to
illegal settlers and loggers while
human-animal conflict was another problem.
The media group and Rhino
Ark, with the help of other companies and charitable organisations, funded a 400-km fence
around the 2,000-sq.km forest.
Mr Wilfred Kiboro, a member
of the Rhino Ark Board of Trustees and chairman of Nation
Media Group, said a fund had
been set up that will be managed by trustees from the Kenya
Wildlife Service, the Kenya Forest Services and Rhino Ark.
After the success of the Aberdare conservation, the company
turned its attention to the Mau,
another major water tower facing destruction. Under the leadership of NMG’s chief executive
officer, Linus Gitahi, the Save the
Mau Fund was launched with
other environmentally aware
companies such as East African
Breweries and Equity Bank.
Experts say its 400,000 hectares, the biggest water supply
area in Kenya lost 107,000 hectares or 25 per cent of its cover
due to tree felling. The forest
also feeds Lake Victoria and the
White Nile, and its destruction
The other project of note was
the Save-A- Life-Fund set up
in 1999 after the Daily Nation
carried an in-depth investigation piece of famine in Turkana
District
The picture of a four-year-old
Aro Koriang, wracked by hunger
and begging for food, appeared
on the front page of the Daily
Nation publication of November
22, 1999 and revealed the gravity
of the problem.
Aro Koriang’s picture became
the face of the Nation’s donations hot-line logo. Aro, was
airlifted to Nairobi and received
treatment at Gertrude’s Garden
Children’s Hospital. In a show
unity, the hospital waived her
Sh325,736 medical bill.
The Nation Media Group and
other charitable organisations
also offered to educate the young
girl, who is now 14.
Clockwise from above: A section of the Mau forest; malnourished
Aro Koriang; then Chief Executive Wilfred Kiboro (left) after the
helicopter he was in crashed as it was about to land in the Aberdares during campaigns to build the park fence in 2006, and a hale an
hearty Koriang after being saved from hunger.
LX | 50 GOLDEN YEARS
DAILY NATION
Looking to the future with optimism
T
hroughout the years under
review, catastrophic headline events were accompanied by instances of economic
and social decline and charges of
official corruption, both high and
low. Accurate as they were, such
negative developments did not
tell the whole, complex nature of
the Kenya story, blurring merited perceptions of the progressive
and the positive.
Good news will always take
second place to bad – in the gossip between politicians and the
conversations of ordinary people
as much as on the front pages of
newspapers.
But this should not disguise
the fact that Kenya has consistently produced good people
doing good things, and that does
not always exclude the government.
Musing on this situation in cy-
berspace recently, a Kenya blogger pointed out that “there has
been an improvement in our
health care system and now you
can safely take your sick one to
a government dispensary and
get medicine for free”. Nurses
and teachers had been recruited
widely in the public sector, thousands of new electricity connections were made through the
Rural Electrification Programme
and if power and water were periodically rationed, the role of
drought and rains failure could
not be ignored, he said.
As little as 10 years ago, many
children could not afford primary school fees, there was no Constituency Development Fund,
harambees were the order of the
day, and, as the blogger recalled,
“We had to beg our MPs for handouts.” Today, schools and dispensaries have been built, there is
As little as 10 years ago, many children
could not afford primary school fees,
there was no Constituency Development
Fund, harambees were the order of the
day, and, as the blogger recalled, “We
had to beg our MPs for handouts.”
some dam-construction and
despite motorists’ justified complaints, huge efforts are being
made to reconstruct many roads.
Huge progress is evident in the
communications sector.
Whilst honouring such
feel-good factors as Wangari
Maathai’s Nobel Prize and the
continuing successes of Kenyan
athletes, a roundup of measurable advances in the past decade
would surely also include the following:
µThe value of exports doubled
to nearly $5 billion.
µSome 26,000 kilometres of
roads built.
µPoverty cut by nearly 10 per
cent
µCell-phone subscribers up
from 15,000 in 1999 to 16 million.
µHundreds of kilometres of
underseas cable laid.
µMassive investments made in
green energy.
µWholesale invasion of public
space ended.
µKenya held no political prisoners.
µThe Office of the President
demystified.
The World Economic Forum’s
Global Competitiveness Report
for 2009-10 placed Kenya 98th
among the nations of the world,
behind South Africa, Namibia,
Botswana, Mauritius and Senegal
in sub-Saharan Africa, but ahead
of Nigeria and all its East African
neighbours.
Aid flows continued generously but the competitiveness of the
national character seemed proof
against any relapse into aid dependency.
Kenya’s blend of beautiful
landscapes and wildlife has made
it one of Africa’s top tourist nations and also one of the world’s
top five bird-watching destinations. Whatever turbulence the
nation undergoes, it never seems
to take long for the tourists from
Europe, America and, increasingly, East Asia, to return.
A systems
engineer at
work. IT will
drive the future.
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Special supplement - Aga Khan Development Network

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