Reporting State of the Nation speech was akin to sorting beans from chaff

It was a tough assignment to report President Uhuru Kenyatta’s State of the Union address in Parliament on Tuesday. He started reading the speech shortly after 3.30pm but didn’t finish until 6pm. For reporters, writing on tight deadlines for Wednesday morning newspapers, it was hectic.

However, Wednesday’s Daily Nation did a sterling job of reporting the speech meaningfully, for which readers are grateful. It shamed the competition who simply went along with the political rhetoric. An extreme example was People Daily Digital, which published the following chronology:

“President Uhuru Kenyatta delivered his 8th State of the Nation speech on Tuesday November 30 at the parliament buildings in Nairobi. In the 2-hour-long speech, he began by sharing how former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and former Cabinet Minister Musalia Mudavadi welcomed him to Parliament for the first time. ‘Honorable Speaker of the National Assembly, Honorable Speaker of the Senate, Honorable Members of Parliament, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Afternoon,’ Uhuru began his speech.”

This story was followed by the production of the full speech — all of the more than 16,000 words. That didn’t show readers what was newsworthy or important. Nor were readers likely to read the whole speech. 

For comparison, I shall return to the Nation to show how it brought out what was newsworthy and important and served readers well.

The epic speech is laden with data, episodes and history. But in terms of length the speech is a killer. Since we like to compare ourselves with Americans — indeed, the State of the Nation address is a derivative of the US Presidents’ State of the Union address — the longest spoken State of the Union address by a US President was Bill Clinton’s January 24, 1995, which was 9,190 words.

Life to the coverage

Looking for news in President Kenyatta’s lengthy address is akin to separating beans from chaff through winnowing. For those not familiar with winnowing, let me tell of what I learnt from my mother. The first thing you do is to thrash the harvested dry bean plants with a stick, or by stamping of your feet, to crush the pods. Then separate the beans from the husks by putting them in a winnowing tray (gitaruru in Gikuyu or uteo in Kiswahili) and tossing them into the air repeatedly until the breeze blows away all the chaff.

A quicker method is to hold the tray high in the air and then pour them into a basket on the ground. The breeze will blow away the chaff. But you’ve to keep an eye on the pourings to ensure none of the beans fall to waste.

In winnowing President Kenyatta’s address, the reporter needs quick critical thinking and a nose for what is news or important. He must also verify the numerical data — the President has been known in past such addresses to misstate numbers, especially of tarmacked roads — and seek responses from MPs and other people. Further, he must provide context and background to make the story meaningful.

Separating the beans (reality) from the chaff (political rhetoric) was the reporter’s toughest challenge. It called for aggressive journalism, well exemplified by the Nation. The newspaper faithfully reported President Kenyatta’s claims under the front page headline “This is my legacy” and under an “Achievements” side column. The front page, however, mentioned that “critics point at failure to address pressing issues like joblessness and a ballooning public debt”.

Readers are then referred to full coverage in the inside pages, where major topics are covered in four articles. There are also brief comments by pundits and MPs. The Nation also reported on the length of the speech and the President’s comments about it. But what really brought life and meaning to the coverage was a separate article under the headline “Issues the Head of State avoided in his address”.

It was a job well done. However, the Nation could have gone further to demonstrate that the State of the Nation addresses, since 2014, have failed to report substantively on such issues as the rule of law, governance, transparency and accountability as required by Article 132 of the Constitution.

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.