100 days in power with 100 Press-men allegedly! Jubilee is a
Showbiz Government
http://www.kenya-today.com/opinion/uhuru-kenyatta-100-days-in-power-media-relations
Multiple and many sources close to associates of the newly
inaugurated presidential strategic communications team tell of a government
going the uncharted pathways to engineer public opinion in a scale never
experienced before. As teachers strike stumbles under the heavy weight of
government intimidation, it is now emerging (allegedly) that President Uhuru
Kenyatta’s coalition, only 100 days in power, has employed 100 journalists to
‘cover’ the presidency and coalition affairs, this is in addition to the
thousands of social media volunteer
bloggers.
“Truth be told, had it not been for ‘our friends in the
media’, this government could by now be a laughing stalk, but the pressure in
the newsroom is huge so we had to hire ours”, a source familiar with the goings
on intimated. The press team, whose public face was shown recently, is said to
be a big network of behind-the-scenes individuals, reeking in thousands of
shillings monthly, with access to almost every government institution in the
country.
In the mainstream Kenyan media, powerful individuals close
to government are alleged to be clandestinely paying off many journalists and
reporters to either ‘spin’ for them (give good news coverage), or report more
negatives on the opposition side, this is not new , it started way back during
the campaigns.
“After the presidential debate when our candidate was
embarrassed by a stubborn journalist, we decided we are never going to have a
hostile journalist interviewing the president; we had to act, it is politics,
and one got to do all that is necessary otherwise we will have embarrassing
sideshows ” revealed a source close to TNA’s core media team
The same source says the worst nightmare of President
Kenyatta are the ICC cases, set to begin late this year.
“The prosecution will be showing very disturbing images of
the 2007 post-poll violence which we want to counter with all the best minds in
media propaganda and what you have seen is just the beginning”.