Why opinion writers including editorial staff must be identified

Who is this Mutuma Mathiu who writes hard-hitting op-eds on Fridays?

Who is Gerry Loughran who writes “Letter from London” in the Sunday Nation?

Who is Gabriel Dolan who is always giving lessons in his Saturday Nation column?  

Who is this Maina Kiai who always skins UhuRuto alive?

And who is David Ndii who specialises in cutting to bits the government? We, as readers as opposed to insiders, now know.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
In his latest article, “What Kenya can do about the end of cheap ugali” published on April 22, the editor inserted this line at the end of his article: “Ndii, an economist, is currently leading the Nasa Technical Committee.”

Thanks to Dr Bagaka Obuya, a loyal reader of the Nation, for the new-found transparency.

He wrote two weeks ago a scathing indictment. He said many readers find it puzzling that the Nation does not, in keeping with international standards, require its opinion writers to declare any conflicts of interest they have, real or apparent.

He said a significant proportion of the opinion writers are civil society activists.

“And as we have found out in recent weeks, a lot of them are, in fact, card-carrying members of the Opposition.

"David Ndii, who has led a one-man crusade against the government for about three years in your pages, has outed himself as a core strategist for the Orange Democratic Movement and the leader of their team searching for an opposition alliance candidate.

"Puzzlingly, your paper still does not identify him as essentially a purveyor of partisan propaganda in his articles in the Saturday Nation.

"There are many other examples. Maina Kiai devotes the vast proportion of his articles to criticising the IEBC but does not mention his active role in partnership with the British High Commissioner in a partisan role during the counting of votes at Bomas in 2013.

IMPARTIAL OBSERVER

"No prizes for guessing, which candidate he was supporting. Readers imagine he is an impartial observer. In fact, he is a politically aligned player.

“For many years, Makau Mutua published a prominent column in your paper.

"He later disclosed on social media that he was, in fact, a political hack.

"Likewise, George Kegoro wrote numerous pieces canvassing for Prof Mutua’s appointment as the Chief Justice without once disclosing that Mutua, as chairman of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, is his direct employer (Mr Kegoro is the executive director).

“Nothing wrong with hearing from these voices because they broaden public discourse.

"But why allow these and other numerous examples of commentators in your pages to be hypocritical and duplicitous in posing as independent analysts when they are, in fact, partisan players?

"Do your readers a service and end this charade by asking all columnists to declare their conflicts of interest.”

BIASNESS

I copied his incisive letter to Nation Media Group’s senior editors.

That is why we’re now seeing brief bio lines about some of the columnists whose professional or institutional affiliations were never given.

But the system of giving the credentials or affiliations of columnists is still not working as well as it should.

Noticing this, the editors charged with production, after consultations among themselves, suggested I highlight the matter.

Dr Obuya had said. “As you may be aware, this seeming anomaly is an issue that many of Nation’s readers have noted and does soil the otherwise respected reputation and image of your company.

"In my view, it will be prudent for you to openly and candidly clarify the noted biasness.”

He was in effect pointing out the NMG editorial policy had been ignored by some individual editors.

His letter shook up the newsroom for it is a common practice for quality newspapers to include the credentials of all opinion writers.

The credentials speak to the qualifications of the writer to speak on the subject or his potential biases and can help the reader to put the opinion in context.
 
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