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Mr. Makali.. are you so drunk with that power that you have abdicated your role as the messenger

Bw. Makali,

I am and have been great admirer of the contents of your pieces right from the days when you were at the Nation and even now when you are managing the Sunday Standard. You surely steadily rose from grass, cut your teeth and now thanks to hard work and an unassuming character, you comfortably dine with great  minds such as Magesha Ngwiri, Philip Ochieng, Domnic Odipo, Dennis Ochieng, Mutuma Mathiu, Lucy Oriang’ and the list goes on and on.

I have been made to understand that you have spread your wings and defacto, the Media Institute is under your fold and so is a programme in the Public owned KBC’s Metro. Great going. 

You are therefore  not only one of the most formidable gatekeepers in the profession but it also singles you out as one of the great chief opinion shapers in the country. At the moment Mr. Makali, am in my last stages of a thesis on the Media and Responsibility in Africa as part of the requisites to masters degree in Mass Communications.

Mr. Makali, I write this piece to you in reference to a recent email that originated from your desk to an upcoming Kenyan artist based here in the United States. While you may have a bone to pick with the young man, am chiefly concerned with the psyche  and ideology behind such pieces and their impact on the content of messages that your clients and customers do get. Perhaps the greater question may actually be that is the Standard Group getting their moneys’ worth? With you at the helm, is the Media Institute in proper hands and is the KBC’s Metro Programme Manager getting the worth of your moonlighting?. Surely are the Kenyan masses being fed with the right material particularly from you?

While at Makerere University, I learnt the ropes of this tread under the guidance of chief Charles Onyango Obbo formerly of the Monitor now with the Nation, I did interact quite a lot with Conrad Nkutu (must be very familiar to you)-he was with the New Vision before coming back to the Standard and now crossed over to the Monitor. His colleague J.B. Waswa was my favorite lecturer. This man taught me media Responsibility. One of the tenets in this tread is that we put all we have out there (in the marketplace of opinion) and let the people edit us thus ensuring self regulation. He also reiterated that we as the eyes and ears of society must be able to strive and get what is new and show rather than tell it to the public. Perhaps then this is why the London coffee houses were so famous and so were the Paris salons.

While doing an internship with the Standard, I met Mr Munji, a great guy who always insisted that the doctrine of fairness must not only exist but be exercised. You surely know who Mr.Munji is. So for a person of your ilk to sit down and compose  copy such as the one you wrote to Mr Wayoga, is realy to say the least kind of pedestrian.. Surely why, Mr Makali would you do that?

  I have had the privilege of reading about hip hop and its origin. And no matter what ghetto it came from, Brooklyn, Harlem Chicago, etc, the culture originated solely as a protest vehicle against white oppression and domination towards the black minority.  There were no education incentives and no jobs for the black population. This way the white man got cheap labor from the uneducated jobless blacks. So in times of entertainment they especially resorted to a way of venting their anger and frustration against this oppression. The rest you can find out from a little research.

  And so even away from your lopsided research (you see that’s why I shudder at the thought that your employers might be getting shortchanged, and the Kenyan Public are being taken for a jolly ride) tell me Mr. Makali, you may be powerful, but are you so drunk with that power that you have abdicated your role as the messenger and kept the message. That is not your job! No.  You do not pull off a piece from the air or space just because you have an opinion about it. Your colleagues above know better.  Are you aware that Mr Wayoga’s music is being played right there in Kenya, of course with the exception of your program? Talk to the people at Citizen, Kiss, Nation, Capital, Ramogi etc. If the Kenyan Masses do not want it, they’ll surely vote it out. That is the maxim.

I wish to share your mail with the above mentioned people and some of your students and let us find out whether this was not an outright abuse of your recently acquired “power”

I await your response. You have 24hrs.

Oti Kabya
Regency Inn, RM 143.
911 E. Oglethorpe Blvd.

Albany, Ga 31705
Tel: 229-883-1650

Thu, 14 Oct 2004 11:57:33 +0000

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