READERS HAVE THEIR SAY

Repetitive quarantine tales

“Quarantine Tales”, by Joyce Wangeci, have been very interesting and flowing smoothly until recently when they started being repetitive — when we expected the grand finale. Case in point is repetition of the story about the lady from Thogoto, the hub and heart of Christianity, and ‘Kofi Annan’, who has a school in Kajiado.

— Benjamin Kibias, Nairobi

Public Editor: On April 29, the Daily Nation apologised for the repetition on April 28. It said: “An essay in the Daily Nation yesterday by Joyce Wangeci, who spent time at a quarantine centre and is writing about her experiences for us, was republished in error. It originally ran on April 21. We apologise to our readers for the mix-up.”

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Report recklessness

Covid-19 is quickly spreading in Kenya, a phenomenon that is bothering both the young and the old. Any effort to stop or at least slow this spread is what everyone who values life is doing today.

In pursuit of this, I have built a cloud-based software application accessible by anyone, from any part of the country.

On the application, one can ask questions about coronavirus, report cases of the virus, report recklessness where people or institutions are not adhering to the government regulations, and get information about the virus, among others.

The application can also analyse the data received and classify a reported case as either mild or severe, triggering the required action to save lives.

I am writing to you because I read an article by Dr Charles Kamotho in Healthy Nation. In it, what he described felt like a mirror of the application I already have.

— Karani G.K.

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Rosy headline, grim forecast

I refer to “Not all gloom as economy to grow by 6.1pc next year” (Daily Nation, April 16, 2020).

The headline depicts a very rosy economic outlook, yet when you read the main story on page 4, the IMF actually gives a very gloomy forecast.

The relevant paragraphs are: “As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt our way of life, IMF says Kenya’s economy will grow by a paltry one per cent this year — a performance far worse than the 2008 post-election violence and only witnessed during the Kanu regime days.

“Simply put, Kenyans should brace for budget cuts and a disruption of the ‘welfare’ state as the government struggles with depressed earnings.”

Looks like the key Nation editors aren’t doing their quality control function properly.

— Daniel Muchiri

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Me? A robot?

I have been reading the Nation since 1982.

When the 8-4-4 system of education began, you offered a scholarship to my son for four years to learn at Alliance High School. He now teaches at a public university in Kenya.

I still buy and read the Nation. I want to read it online and you are asking me if I am a robot. I am ashamed, because that is strange.

An elderly person like me to be asked to do an aptitude, intelligent quotient test?

— A. Shene Johnstone

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Is this fair?

On a couple of occasions, I’ve sent letters to the editor which he did not publish on the letters page but passed them on to in-house writers, who went on to craft feature articles on the subjects but under their names.

Is this fair?

— Sammy Ng’ang’a, Nairobi

Public Editor: I forwarded the query to the Daily Nation Opinion Editor, Mwiti Marete.

While empathising with Mr Ng’ang’a, Mr Marete termed the reader’s experiences as coincidental. But he added that “it is normally reporters’ stories that elicit debate through opinion articles and letters to the editor, which we welcome”.

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