MADOWO: Lupita Nyong’o owes no one anything, let her be!

Lupita Nyong’o’s only official press event at the Villa Rosa Kempinski last Tuesday was a circus. Journalists with bosses in Nairobi and everywhere else in the world all wanted a piece of her.

She navigated the organised chaos with remarkable ease and grace, as only one who has survived the madness of the Oscars can. Reporters haggled with publicists for a few minutes with the star but many ended up disappointed as she had to run to a mentorship do at a different location.

She sat down with CNN before she made her way to me, drinking bottled Kenyan mineral water with a straw.

In 2012, Lupita had a risqué role as Ayira in the MTV series Shuga. Few now remember that because her breakthrough role as Patsey in the feature film, 12 Years A Slave, was so universally praised that it eclipsed anything else she had ever done as an actress, producer or director.

Even fewer remember that she wrote and directed the documentary, In My Genes, about the plight of albinos in Kenya.

Yet 10 years ago today, she was just another production runner on a big Hollywood film, The Constant Gardener.

Outside the room where we were taping the interview, part of Lupita’s “glam squad” was having breakfast, dreaming about the Mara. Los Angeles celebrity make-up artist Nick Barose was chatting away with noted British hair stylist Vernon François, with a view of Chiromo Road.

A few metres away, big security men with long faces were keeping nearly two dozen anxious media folks behind a rather large door. Several other members of “Team Lupita” milled outside the Opus 3 room, glancing alternately at their multiple phones and printed schedules.

She was running late, and they didn’t like it.

'MANO TO BER'

“Machiegni dala,” I told her in Luo. Welcome home. She laughed shyly, not having expected that despite the false camaraderie that these interviews portray. “Mano to ber”. That is good. We talked for a quarter of an hour about her Academy Award win last year, following dreams and images of beauty for darker skinned Black girls. “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid,” she had said when she accepted film’s highest honour.

I pressed her about that, curious if that was easier to say if one had her privileged background – rich parents and a Yale education.

“I only have the life I have lived so I can’t speak for what it might be like to speak for someone else,” she replied instantly. “I know that I have been very fortunate to have parents who understood the importance of supporting their children’s interests even when they were unconventional.”

A few days earlier, a newspaper photographer claimed he had been forced to delete pictures of Senator Anyang’ Nyongo’s most famous child when he and her mother, Dorothy, walked into the hotel’s lobby.

Her Sh10,000 a person benefit dinner for the wildlife conservation charity, WildAid, was also heavily slammed as too ostentatious and elite for a Kenyan girl. Armchair analysts opined that it was in bad taste to put such an expensive price tag on her homecoming when her compatriots all wanted to see her.

An arts writer wondered why she wasn’t going back to her old roots at the Kenya National Theatre to hang out with artist types like old times.

The sense of entitlement among Kenyans about how Lupita should come home is totally misplaced, considering how they ignored her when she was working her way up.

Not enough people watched or bought her documentary about such a critical subject as the minorities she shone a spotlight on. There weren’t many sold-out shows during her stint on stage with Phoenix Players when she was barely a teenager.

How many future Lupitas are currently languishing in the arts spaces in Kenya without public support or recognition?

All Amondi Nyaseme has achieved are individual accomplishments, so she doesn’t owe Kenyans anything. In any case, she was born in Mexico, so the Latin Americans can lay equal claim to her.

That she found it in her heart to mentor artists and youth during her time here is a credit to her. She didn’t need to do anything for anybody here because she has earned what she’s got all by herself. Buy tickets to the next Kenyan play or film, that’s how we can ensure a steady supply of Lupitas.

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Misinformation aplenty about Obama’s trip

MAMA SARAH Obama is getting ready to receive her grandson, Barack, in Kogelo. But nobody really knows if the US president will be visiting Siaya County, or anywhere else for that matter, when he’s here in a fortnight. But a “statement” from a “Traffic Department” quickly did the rounds last week, warning of a lockdown on most of Nairobi’s roads and the entire Kenyan airspace when POTUS gets here.

“Please ignore the fake reports circulating on social media claiming planned lockdown of Nairobi City during Obama’s visit. It’s pranksters’ work,” tweeted interior ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka.

I was amused and miffed, considering that I had written about this phenomenon that very week. I saw the message and immediately wondered why the “Traffic Department”, and not civil aviation authorities, was announcing airport closures. It goes back to the sense of scepticism I talked about last week and distrusting everything I read.

The US State Department and embassy are deliberately being economical with details about Obama’s visit for security reasons. Yet every WhatsApp user is pretending to be a Secret Service insider with a detailed account of the upcoming trip. Remember, don’t believe everything you read.

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Mr Governor, our invitation is still open

Dr Evans Kidero’s spokesman is a joker. It’s very hard to take him seriously. No, he’s really a comedian.

So when Walter Mong’are walked into the NTV newsroom late on Monday evening to announce that the Nairobi governor had cancelled his interview, we were not amused. It turns out Mong’are was serious this time.

The doctor-turned-business leader-turned-politician had done another TV interview the previous day, so we were sure he was available. His lawyers had advised against it, Mong’are told us. How odd, considering that these same lawyers had no issues with the aforementioned interview.

Dr Kidero is probably the least available governors for the media (and the public?) so it was not surprising. He’s made a career of avoiding the press so you wonder why he employs a PR team at all. I don’t know if the governor reads the papers, but the invite to speak to him about the corruption allegations against him remains open.

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Feedback: On why we should verify information on the Internet

I  concur with you. Everyonw who uses the Internet should heed your advice. If all the articles we read on the Internet were true, there would not be a single celebrity in Hollywood today.

This is because most of them have been “killed”, with frequent RIP messages on Twitter, Facebook and in blogs. Everyone on the Internet wants to reach as many views and reads as possible, so many people post false information in order to feel the satisfaction of their article or video being “shared” more than 10 times on other social media platforms.

I believe publicity stunts are here to stay, so we should stop being naïve and assess all the content we come across on the Internet. 

Salome Ayugi

I totally agree with you. Everyone who uses the Internet can say it is manipulative. Most blogs people read are exaggerated as the writers often spice up things.  If bloggers are paid by the view, then they have a financial decision to make each time they write and publish. And they want their facts to have a driving factor and to be catchy to the reader even if it is total nonsense.

It’s all about provoking a reaction. What’s the best way to get page views? It’s to write something that other people share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, via email, etc.

That’s why those big icons are there on every post and video you see. Everything has to be controversial and provocative, even when it actually isn’t, just to drive comments as it is lucrative for online publishers. Unfortunately, we can’t stop this from happening.

 Personally, I don’t believe everything on the Internet. Some rumours might be true, yes, but people spice up things on the Internet. There is lack of accountability in our society today, so it takes a short time for someone’s name to be tarnished. The bitter truth is that there is nothing we can do to control the Internet.

Debbie Ouma

“As a rule I distrust everything until I verify the facts from independent sources. It is an extra layer of caution and saves us from making monumental reporting mistakes or even worse, embarrassing ourselves,” you said last week.

What about those who cannot objectively identify these “independent sources”. What about the millions who do not have access to these sources? What about those who do not have the kind of access that, for example, a journalist like you would have to verify information and sources?

Therein lies one of the great challenges of this subject.

Loreen Ajwang’