READERS HAVE THEIR SAY

Let’s mourn Moi first

Former President Moi united Kenyans. It is, therefore, wrong in the Daily Nation of February 5, 2020 for some learned Kenyans like Dr Joyce Nyairo (“Remembering and re-remembering Moi, and the way he made us feel”), Macharia Gaitho (“Moi and the death of the Kanu machine”) and even former Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere (“Koigi: My dalliance and then big fallout with Moi”) to write articles about him which are not helpful.

Why are they concentrating on the negatives only? Let them give Kenyans time to mourn and, after Mzee is laid to rest, they can start writing their usual lamentations.

— Amos Okindo Ogoti

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Headlines that don’t deliver

I’m dismayed the author of the article “How ‘Kamiti boys’ are cleaning mobile cash wallets every day”, published in the Daily Nation of February 5, 2020, departed from the expected content indicated in the title.

My intention to read the article was to get informed on what was promised in the headline. I expected a detailed story of how ‘Kamiti boys’ defraud unsuspecting mobile users.

I read the first three paragraphs, which were in resonance with the headline and my expectations, but on starting on the fourth, I realised the story didn’t have the content indicated in the title.

What a way to cheat readers!

— Kamau Ngugi

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Editor unfair to Debarl

What a week that was! To cap it all, Peter Mwaura, the Public Editor — nay, Ombudsman — of the Nation got his hair raised by the doings of one Debarl Inea and his gaggle of contributors.

He became the stranger who cries more than the bereaved. He claims to be aware that the show “offered precious little information or opinions viewers can rely on or trust”. He does not make any attempt to show how he arrived at such a conclusion.

I, for one, watched the talk show yet I do not share his views. Let me disabuse him from his purported vantage point of divinity.

A talk show is not an opinion piece, write-up or even an outright editorial as he claims.

Debarl’s work is to rein in Manyora & Co and ensure they stick to the topic at hand, behave well and with a modicum of self-respect and civility towards others. Debarl cannot provide the panel with what to say. He should not.

The Public Editor has to realise that knowledge is not mono-dimensional.

To each idea, we must breathe in our perspective from where we stand, based on our training and life experience.

FURTHER RESEARCH

When people watch a rally, it is up to them to see what they communicate to us; their wordings and emotional trajectory is something the host cannot manage even if he wanted to.

In my understanding, political discourse can and must benefit from other strands of knowledge like anthropology, law, psychology, culturalism, literary interpretation, religion, rumour and the like.

The Public Editor will do well to be a regular customer of CNN and Fox News to see how these things are done elsewhere.

To latch onto some obscure editorial policy as if it forms part of the Pentateuch is naive and unhelpful.

— George Marenya, Siaya

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