President William Ruto speaks during the High-Level Segment for Heads of State and Government session at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai on December 1, 2023.
| AFPOur Columnists
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Farm workers on $1,500 salary and other uncompleted stories
Kenyan farm labourers will be earning a net salary of $1,500 per month in Israel. The pay, about Sh230,000, is more than the average salary of a University of Nairobi professor.
Big deal, or is it? The deal is contained in “Kenya plans to send 1,500 farm workers to Israel” published in last Friday’s Daily Nation.
The story is reported without other facts or circumstances that would give full meaning to the story. It’s an uncompleted story. Other facts that would have given the story its full meaning include information on the cost of living in Israel, which is 188 per cent higher than in Kenya, according to livingcost.org. A loaf of white bread (500g), for example, costs about Sh355.
Other facts are that the salary, the minimum wage in Israel, is taxable at 10 per cent, and a round trip to Israel would cost about Sh125,000. Providing information on other facts or circumstances that would give meaning to a story is known as contextualised reporting. It provides a deeper understanding of the story.
The labourers in Israel story is not the only story in recent days that need contextualized reporting. The stories on the “excessive” Kenyan delegates to the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, which ended on Tuesday, and President William Ruto’s “excessive” foreign trips stand out for comment.
In both stories contextualising is badly missing or misapplied. The 765 Kenya delegates at the climate conference were contrasted with those of richer countries that had smaller delegations. The implication is that most of the Kenyan delegates went for shopping.
No serious attempts
Journalists made no serious attempts to look at other facts or circumstances that might have explained why Kenya and other African countries had such large delegations. The Sunday Nation reported on December 3 that the Kenyan delegation was the 13th-largest out of the 195 participating nations. The story was headlined “Climate gravy train”.
The Observer, published by the Media Council of Kenya, comments dryly on the Nation story: “A Boeing 777 carries 312 to 388 passengers—meaning, Kenya needed two jumbo jets [to fly 765 delegates to Dubai].
The story insinuated that government had flown out all these people. It did not inform the reader how many were government employees and how many were private citizens. And whether all of them were there for the full period or appearance was staggered.”
Tony Malesi, a consulting editor, says the media was “ignorant and unfair”. Labelling the presence of Kenyan and other African countries delegates as excessive or unjustified fails to recognise “the realities that underscore the continent’s role in the global climate dialogue”.
Further, says Mr Malesi, the media failed to recognise that the registration for attendance as a national of this or that country required at international conferences doesn’t necessarily mean the delegates are government-sponsored; only 51 of the Kenya delegates were government-sponsored, he notes.
With regard to President Ruto, the story is that his foreign trips are too many in too short a time, costly and unnecessary. The number of trips he has made, the Nation reports, is “nearly 45 amid public outrage among a section of Kenyans and opposition leaders who say the President should focus on reducing the high cost of living”. The Nation.Africa story of December 4, reads: “From Dubai, President Ruto on yet another trip.”
While President Ruto has been on 43 trips since taking office in September last year, the Nation reports, President Mwai Kibaki made just 33 in his 10 years in power. What’s more, President Ruto has spent over Sh56 million on travel in the first half of the financial year ending June 2024. “This is twice the amount spent by [President Uhuru Kenyatta] in a similar period in 2021.” The Nation.Africa story of December 3, reads: “COP28: Kenya bags Sh680 billion deals amid gravy train query.”
While comparing the number of trips and their costs made by the different presidents is interesting, it is more useful to evaluate the purpose of the trips. Mere comparison can lead to absurdities. For example, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta made only one foreign travel during his 15-year rule. Ipso facto, he did not waste taxpayer’ money on foreign travel (Never mind his aviophobia).
In controversial or complex stories, journalists need to portray events accurately by looking beyond the stated facts, placing the story in context, and interpreting the meaning of the news.
- The Public Editor is an independent news ombudsman who handles readers’ complaints on editorial matters including accuracy and journalistic standards. Email: [email protected]. Call or text 0721989264.
