To be ‘included’ is simply to be ‘among others’

Those who accompanied President Kibaki included, among others, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and minister Kiraitu Murungi.” That tautology is common in our newspapers. 

DISCRIMINATE

A tautology is a word or phrase which calmly repeats a meaning already conveyed. For to be included is exactly the same thing as to be among (others). Here it means that many more officials were in the Head of State’s entourage, but that only Mr Musyoka and Mr Murungi were worth mentioning in this particular paragraph (ideally near the “intro”).

Among the Cabinet members present, only Mr Murungi — because the function involved his ministry — was important. 

But, in the story, Mr Musyoka took precedence over him for obvious reasons. Somewhere near the end, the reporter dutifully gave a list of other high-powered officials in the retinue. 

I say “high-powered” because, clearly, an all-inclusive list was not possible.

The reporter must be discriminate. He will include all the ministers, all the permanent secretaries, the head of the relevant department, the heads of the related parastatals and, perhaps, the representative of the funding agency.

COMPRISE

That gives you a good idea why to include does not mean the same thing as to compose or to be made up of. The presidential function was composed of thousands of Kenyans, including government officials.

The government itself merely includes — but is not composed of — technocrats. Not all members are experts, only some. Likewise, our Parliament is not composed of women. The House merely includes some members of the distaff side.

A related verb is to comprise. Most of us — including teachers, lawyers, journalists and other professionals — use this verb only in the sense of to compose. 

An academic recently asserted that “Parliament is comprised of veterans and newcomers.” To be sure, to comprise means “to consist of” or “to constitute the whole of”. But the verb is simply “to comprise”.

CHATTERBOXES

There is no such verb as “to comprise of”. Parliament does not “comprise of veterans and newcomers”. No, it simply comprises them. For example, “Singing comprised the entire evening”.

However, the original — and still the best — meaning of to comprise is not to compose but to include. Comprise comes from compris, which is the participle of the French verb comprendre, which means to comprehend — literally, to encircle, to surround, to embrace and, only metaphorically, to understand.

Our Parliament comprises women. Literally, it surrounds them, enfolds them, embraces them, even hugs them. But whether it also understands them is a question which I cannot affirm in the face of the machismi who compose our house of chatterboxes.

Include comes from the Latin in and claudere, together meaning “to close into”, “to enclose” or, in John Locke’s rendition, “to enclose”. To include is to put something or somebody among others.

CONTRACTION

The preposition among or among is a contraction of the Old English on gemang, which meant “in a group” or “in a crowd”. To include was to throw somebody into a mass rally.

Mr Ochieng is a veteran journalist.​