READERS HAVE THEIR SAY

NTV did right

Journalism has a role in acting as a voice of the voiceless. NTV can’t be ruled out of order for highlighting DJ Evolve’s plight. They were absolutely right and within their mandate.

Those who find fault in what NTV did are sympathisers of impunity who believe the rich must be given way. Maybe they wouldn’t hold the same opinion if Babu Owino were a poor man.

— Jerome Ogola

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Follow-up on ePaper

I have read your article, “Reader experience in getting daily dose of the truth through ePaper” (Daily Nation, July 3, 2020) on the challenges of the font used in the Nation ePaper.

This is true. I gave up, thinking I was alone or I just need to visit an optician or may be going blind and blaming the Nation management. Please follow up on our behalf.

— Collins Okatch

The Nation offers customers the ePaper, accessible on their mobile phones through USSD code *550#. I dialled, got a message on “need for Safaricom data support”. I gave up after a number of trials. Please advise the team to make it user-friendly or risk losing business.

— Helen Atieno, Ngong

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Error 404

I usually open several pages of the Nation Online to read at a later date, especially if it’s an important article or opinion piece, and when I go back to my browser and reload, I get the news that I wanted immediately.

But of late, when I try reload all the pages that I had opened to read at a later date, I get a “404” error message, which tells me the information is not available. Are you deleting articles from your server?

Your engagement in this matter would be highly obliged. I would really appreciate recovering some of your brilliant opinion pieces from my browser.

— Derrick Karani

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Same guests

Thank you for being true to your calling as the Nation Media Group ombudsman.

Why does NTV repeatedly invite the same guests despite hosting different talk shows? Surely, there is no shortage of Kenyans from diverse economic, social and political backgrounds.

— Dr Njau Gitu

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Obscene picture?

I refer to the illustration of the article “Corazon Kwamboka on how she beat disease to conceive” (Sunday Nation, July 5, 2020, page 3). I am sure the editor scratched his head before deciding to carry the photo of Ms Kwamboka clad in a skin-clinging outfit that exposed her generous figure.

— Githuku Mungai, Nairobi

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No crying wolf

My attention has been drawn to “Kamariny coming up from scratch” by Bernard Rotich (Daily Nation, July 8, 2020, page 50). The story starts with the following paragraph: “You must have read the Aesop’s fable of the boy who cried wolf. If you don’t, I have no idea where you have been!”

The story is about the ongoing renovation of Kamariny stadium in Elgeyo-Marakwet County. The writer draws the analogy of the Aesop fable to demonstrate how past and present leaders have been promising to renovate the said stadium. But the analogy as used by the writer is wrong.

The fable of the “boy who cried wolf” is usually used to warn people who often raise false alarms only to be in real danger and nobody is there to help. This analogy does not fit into the circumstances surrounding the completion of the stadium as depicted.

The writer describes as “crying wolf” the promise to revamp the stadium by Sports Chief Administrative Secretary Hassan Noor Hassan and Sports Kenya Director-General Pius Metto, who recently visited the stadium. The writer goes on to describe the coming of the real wolf thus: “But it would appear that the real ‘wolf’ (read government) have (sic) finally showed up, with heavy machinery, and heightened activity at the stadium, an indication that there’s, finally, light at the end of the tunnel.”

From the analogy used by the writer, one would wonder how the “heavy machinery” and “heightened activity at the stadium” amounts to the “real wolf”. According to the writer, the promise to “revamp” the stadium was wished away by the athletes, who termed it as “crying wolf”. Can the failed promises be reasonably regarded as “crying wolf”? Does the “heavy machinery” and “heightened activity” amount to eminent danger and a cry for help that is not heeded?

The analogy is clearly not the “tale at Iten’s Kamariny stadium”. Clearly, the writer misapplied the “Aesop fable of a boy who cried wolf”. A better analogy would have been that of “the light at the end of the tunnel” as expressed by the kicker below the headline, introduced by the sub-editor.

— Enock Tarus, Iten

Don’t own land

In the story “Politicians own huge chunks of Ngong Forest” (Sunday Nation, June 28, 2020), you said a former board member of the Kenya Forest Service, Maj-Gen Njoroge, is a holder of the purported titles of land. Please note that this is defamation.

I do not own forest land in Ngong Forest. I am a senior retired military officer who served this nation with loyalty for 39 years. I demand that you expunge my name and apologise.

— Lt-Gen (Rtd) Njoroge

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.