Envoys should do their job of marketing Kenya

The ongoing gathering of Kenya’s envoys at the Coast has put the media in the spotlight, with the accent being that they are to blame for the travel advisories that have hurt tourism in recent years.

In their reasoning, the envoys argue that the media have been obsessed with negative stories that give the country a bad name and provide fodder for foreign diplomats in Nairobi to advise their home countries to veto visits to Kenya.

Specifically, the media are faulted for giving undue publicity to cases of insecurity, corruption, and other ills afflicting the country, which in the envoys’ thinking, are matters that should be downplayed.

Clearly, this is warped reasoning. Insecurity has been one of the greatest challenges confronting this country in recent times and no one can hide from that fact. True, the terrorist attacks are beyond our control, but they have happened in our land and cannot be wished away. At any rate, the government cannot be extricated from blame, given that it presides over a dysfunctional security system.

The second point is that corruption and other ills being reported in the media are pointers to a weak governance structure.

In reporting them, the media are not out to tarnish the name of anyone, but to capture the rot in society. A government that fails to tackle such vices cannot turn around and blame anybody else when the matters are widely publicised.

The trouble is that this country does not have a coherent policy strategy to guide those appointed to foreign missions. Moreover, most appointees are politicians unschooled in the art of diplomacy and hence cannot market the country abroad.

The envoys should learn to do their work and justify their foreign postings instead of looking for scapegoats for their non-performance.