Wanjigi story raised questions about objectivity

Businessman Jimi Wanjigi (left) converses with Nasa co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka during a rally at Uhuru Park on April 27, 2017. Little good is ever written about Wanjigi. PHOTO NATION MEDIA GROYP

What you need to know:

  • It appears to have been the newspaper coverage that had given Jubilee the cue to bring the story into its campaign.
  • Although the story purported to be about Wanjigi, it was presenting a narrative about Nasa.

Even before the Daily Nation picked him out with a front-page story last week, campaign billboards had already surfaced on the country’s highways, depicting Jimi Wanjigi as the puppeteer pulling the strings behind the National Super Alliance (Nasa) principals, who were portrayed as his marionettes.

The newspaper’s headline story lifted the lid on the secretive Wanjigi, a high-born wheeler-dealer who has featured in an inarticulate yet grand manner, in the country’s political and financial circles for about two decades.

Wanjigi was mentioned adversely in the Anglo Leasing scandal, a high-value financial scam in which the Exchequer made colossal losses through sham arrangements that were styled as contracts for the supply of security services and equipment.

BROKER
Unlike some of his alleged co-conspirators, however, Wanjigi was never charged in court and went back into the shadows, from where last week’s extraordinary story drew him.

The appearance of billboards with Wanjigi’s image provided evidence of something most unusual.

The usual practice in Kenya is for campaign billboards promoting the cause of the candidate whose image they carry.

This is not what happened in the case of Wanjigi, who appeared at the center of a picture that also had the five Nasa principals, with a caption, “The Kikuyu Broker who owns Nasa”.

CORRUPTION
A free-for-all has followed the newspaper coverage, with the Jubilee campaign now coming out to say that the Nasa campaign is funded with the proceeds of corruption, an allegation that has been met with counter-allegations that Jubilee, too, is funded through the proceeds of corruption.

There are however a number of questions about the journalistic considerations that went into the story.

Without demonstrating a clear need for it, the authors of the story adopted a position of moral superiority, expressing strong opinions about the life and conduct of Wanjigi.

KALONZO'S AMBITION
A glaring element of the coverage however was the fact that the story made little mention of Wanjigi’s connections with the ruling Jubilee Party.

In his book, Against all Odds, Kalonzo Musyoka tells the story of how he was edged out of an arrangement under which he was to be the flag-bearer at the end of the Mwai Kibaki presidency, with Uhuru Kenyatta as his deputy.

According to that story, William Ruto and Kenyatta, who were his collaborators at the time, visited his home one night, in the company of Wanjigi, to break the news that they had dropped out of the arrangement that would have supported his presidential ambition.

According to Musyoka, the visit proved the end of their working relationship, and brought together a new relationship between his three visitors which eventually culminated in the Jubilee alliance that took power in the 2013 election.

JUBILEE
The Daily Nation covered Musyoka’s rendition of how Jubilee came together, noting the prominent role that Wanjigi had played in that process.

Last week’s story was remarkable for its omission of the relationship between Wanjigi, against whom the unnamed authors reserved the strongest criticism, and the Jubilee Government.

The thrust of the story was to raise fear as to how Nasa had brought itself to work with such a tainted man and what effect such a relationship would have on the coalition.

While this is obviously an important question to ask, a more complete treatment of Wanjigi would have required that the newspaper looked into the effects of his relationship with Jubilee.

NASA CAMPAIGNS
In effect, there was no problem with Wanjigi when he worked with Jubilee and he only became unacceptable when he started working with Nasa.

Initially, Nasa played the card of contempt on this story.

However, Jubilee then picked it up in its campaigns, asserting that Nasa was being funded with the proceeds of corruption.

It is at that point that the Nasa principals reacted, with Musyoka referring to his own book about the relationship between Kenyatta, Ruto and Wanjigi.

It appears to have been the newspaper coverage that had given Jubilee the cue to bring the story into its campaign.

The question, though, is whether or not Jubilee was merely acting opportunistically.

BAD LIGHT
Although the Daily Nation has previously covered Wanjigi, mostly in negative light, last week’s coverage was particularly judgmental, referring to him as a “tenderpreneur and corrupt deal maker”.

The usual style of the newspaper is that it hesitates to make bold conclusions, leaving it to readers to do so on their own.

The brave conclusions, together with the minutiae about Wanjigi’s private life, left the impression that the idea behind the story was not just to show that Wanjigi was a corrupt man, something that has been claimed many times before, but to denigrate him.

But why belittle the business operative about whom little good is ever written?

HYPOCRITES
The answer to this question has already been implied.

Although the story purported to be about Wanjigi, it was presenting a narrative about Nasa.

The story did little damage to Wanjigi’s already battered reputation but made the point that Nasa was hypocritical in its claims about a commitment to fighting corruption.

In this regard, Wanjigi was only a case study for this narrative.

To make it stick, the narration needed to be colourful, and it was.

REFORM CREDENTIALS
The story implies that Nasa will need to carefully examine how its association with Wanjigi affects its credibility and the reform credentials it claims in this election.

While it is reasonable to make this point, ascribing Wanjigi to Nasa while keeping quiet about his relationship with Jubilee negates this advice and raises questions as to whether the two parties are being judged by different standards.

Whether or not this was the intention, last week’s story had the effect of appearing like an attempt at corroborating claims that Jubilee had made that Wanjigi was the owner of Nasa.

There is need to examine how such an enterprise affects the stand about objective journalism.