1. Background Information. 2. Methodology of Print Media Monitoring

Transcription

1 AWC-CAPF PRINT MEDIA MONITORING REPORT OF 2007 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN KENYA:

2 1. Background Information The print media monitoring exercise focuses solely on the election campaign of the three key presidential candidates, and the parties that sponsored them. The scope of the exercise is based on what is covered in the main print dailies in Kenya namely: The Daily Nation, The East African Standard; Kenya Times and The People. The three main political parties covered in this report are ODM-K, ODM and PNU. The presidential candidates were: President Mwai Kibaki (PNU), Raila Odinga (ODM) and Kalonzo Musyoka (ODM K). The fourth candidate Pius Muiru has also been included in the study. 2. Methodology of Print Media Monitoring The monitoring involved both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the coverage in the print media monitoring covered in the mainstream newspapers namely: The Daily Nation, the East African Standard (EAS), Kenya Times, and the People for the competing political parties and candidates as well as issues on 2007 general elections. The entire print news bulletins were monitored for political / election-related content with regards to the objectivity, accuracy, impartiality and fairness in reporting. The study also analyzed the area (sq. cm) or length, editorial inclination and overall bias. The area / space dedicated to the political parties are represented as a percentage of the total coverage provided on the candidates, political parties and issues discussed. Further the study sought to establish how the print media treated different political parties / coalitions and the frequency and issues raised during the campaigns. The study has further sought to determine the gender balance in the sourcing of election-related news, the impact of the coverage in luring voters to particular parties and for their candidates. Political Highlights of the Month (December 1st - 31st 2007) Campaign agenda of the candidates: i) Clamor for a new constitution; Unequal distribution of natural resources; Free secondary education; Economic federalism ii) The leading newspapers dedicated the first 10 front pages to electoral related news with the front pages exclusively dedicated to the three main presidential contenders and the parties they represent iii) Propaganda broadcasts on Print, Radio & TV Stations in Kenya iv) Pollsters predicted a close presidential race (Raila 45%, Kibaki 39% and Kalonzo (11%). v) Official end of the campaigns vi) Ballot papers security and temperament reported vii) Kibaki dish out public goodies including new districts to lure voters viii) High voter turn out witnessed in the country ix) Presidential and Constituency vote tallies and nail biting wait at KICC x) Setting up of verification teams xi) Final announcement of the disputed presidential results xii) European Union and East African Community Observers verdict xiii) Violence broke in many parts of Kenya and people got displaced 2

3 3. Print Media Analysis for the Month of December 2007 December was the month of the actual polling presidential and parliamentary elections in Kenya. The official campaign period was to run between December 3rd and 24th. The declaration of the official campaign period marked the highlight of the month in which fears of election rigging involving the government and some security agencies, like the Administration Police, accusation of the printing of counterfeit presidential ballots in Belgium and the rise in violence especially targeted towards the Administration police officers, who were believed to be forces behind the rigging claims. Another highlight of the month was the swearing in of Samuel Kivuitu on the extension of his tenure as the chairman of the ECK, claims of printing of counterfeit presidential papers in Belgium, President Mwai Kibaki s promised to hike pay for civil servants, members of the disciplined forces, teachers and his continued creation of districts, which reached a record high of 157 almost twice the number when he took over in President Mwai Kibaki of PNU maintained his lead as the most covered candidate by the Nation, followed by Raila Odinga of the ODM while ODM-K s Kalonzo Musyoka wound up the coverage of the top three. It is important to note that very little was covered by the dailies of the other six presidential candidates, other than Ms Nazlin Umar of the Workers Congress Party and Keneth Matiba of Saba Saba Asili, both who received insignificant coverage in the entire month of December. The study observed that the six other presidential candidates received nothing, if insignificant, coverage in the main dailies, which, however, abnormal space for the incumbent and his two main challengers. This selective coverage not only blurred and obfuscated the line of contest in the presidential contest but deliberately denied the voters an opportunity to make informed choices based on the information provided by the media. Overall, the print media abdicated its role of being a neutral arbiter and a source of illuminating information in the electoral process; especially in as far as the coverage of the 2007 general election was concerned. Due to the foregoing it can be said that most voters went to the polls with skewed understanding of the electoral process, sloppy understanding of the candidates, issues they articulated in the campaigns and what their political parties stood for. 4. Print Media Coverage of the Presidential Candidates (December 2007) The Nation led in frequency and space allocated to Mwai Kibaki and the Party of National Unity (PNU) while the East African Standard continued to give more coverage to ODM and its flag bearer Raila Odinga over Kibaki (PNU). Kalonzo was again ranked third in coverage by all the newspapers analyzed in the study. Overall, Kibaki received most positive coverage while Raila got most negative coverage in both the Nation and the Standard with Kenya Times leading in painting Raila negatively. On individual basis, president Kibaki takes the lead with 38 news elements to his name in the Nation; Odinga follows with 33 while Musyoka gets 26 news items. Further, the difference is manifested in space allocated to the three leading candidates. President Kibaki took the lead with 34,882, cm sq, Odinga 32,932 cm.sq, while Kalonzo had 16,842cm sq. In the same breadth, PNU had 35 news items, ODM 25, while ODM-K had 22. The PNU s total space was 18,754cm, sq, and ODM 16,345cm sq, while ODM-K got 14,328cm sq. 3

4 Nation Newspapers: Percentage of coverage for the presidential candidates (December 2007) Summary of the Presidential candidates coverage in the print media December 2007: Presidential candidates Newspapers (Space sq.cm) Nation Standard People Kenya Times Kibaki Raila Kalonzo Muiru In terms of space (sq.cm) the coverage of the political parties participating in 2007 general elections is as shown in the chart below: Print media coverage the presidential candidates (December 2007) 4

5 It is noted that President Mwai Kibaki was given more coverage (34,882 cm.sq) by the Daily Nation in the month of December compared to 32,932 cm sq. for Raila, Kalonzo (16,842 cm.sq) whereas Pius Muiru is covered dismally at (4,539 cm.sq) only. On EAS on the other hand, reveals a more aggressive coverage of the ODM even as it gives abundant space to Raila. The ODM candidate led in coverage by (28,628sq cm) compared to Kibaki (25,392sq cm) and Kalonzo s coverage with an area of 21,297 sq cm and Muiru allocated the least space of 3, 268 cm.sq. The East African Standard on the other hand had a near equal coverage of the two leading candidates, president kibaki and Odinga, with Musyoka coming a close third. With 49 news items, Odinga got the highest news coverage in the month of December, while president Kibaki followed closely with 44 and Musyoka had 36. Odinga was given sq in space, president Kibaki gets 29, 122, while Musyoka gets 20,981 in cm sq. The People and Kenya Times coverage of the presidential candidates during the month under review is as shown in the table below: East African Standard: Percentage of coverage for the presidential candidates (December 2007) 5

6 5. Placement of Stories (Front Page / Back page /Headline Coverage) There was a fair attempt by the Standard and Nation to provide equitable front page to the three leading parties and their candidates. In total, all the three leading presidential candidates collectively hogged eighteen (18) headlines in the Nation as the newspaper increasingly avoided the idea of going down with a headline of one particular candidate of the so called the leading candidates. This may be construed as indecisiveness on the part of the editors for they should work in the realm of their ethical and professional calling where they have to make the hard choices of promoting a story based on its value, but not based on expediency or fear of the perception of bias. The most notable thing about the coverage of the three candidates by the Nation is the prominence, treatment and even placement accorded to each story of the three. The president s stories were mainly placed on prominent pages, (1, 3, 5, 7 etc), those of Odinga and Kalonzo were placed on opposite pages (2, 4, 6,) which inhibits the accessibility forcing the reader to flip through before seeing them. Musyoka s fate is further compounded that the paper seriously edited his stories and what came out was a summarized and paraphrased version of what he said in his rallies. President Kibaki was covered well with deeper meaning of his promises given out, but there is a tendency to downplay Odinga s blueprint to the people or even an outright impression that whatever he promised was motivated by raw greed for power. It was observed that ODM got front page coverage in both Nation and Standard than the other competing parties. Further Mr. Odinga s stories appeared more often in the Standards front pages / headline while The People Newspapers had more coverage of PNU and Kibaki in front pages or placed on the prominent pages. 6. Political Issues addressed by the presidential candidates Throughout the month, the clamour for a new constitution, war against corruption, both past and present, unequal distribution of national resources and free secondary education were the main issues common in the campaigns of the three main candidates. Odinga came up with a promise of a blueprint of the first 100 days of his administration in office, but the idea was shelved in preference for the regional manifestos, which detailed how his government will prioritise the needs and aspirations of each specific region in Kenya if elected. He further, promised not to compromise on delivery of quality education, universal healthcare and not to apply statistics to play politics with poverty. Apart from the regional manifestos, which Raila had launched his blueprint for the presidency was captured during the party s final rally at Nyayo Stadium on December 24, where he gave the country seven electoral pledges. Other issues were: the new constitution in six months, tackling corruption, past and present, because it has held the nation hostage, harness the potential of the Kenya s youth, ensure disability rights, genuinely empower women, fully involve the minorities. He promised not to sit and watch the obstacles of tribe; religion, gender, and disability hinder individual achievement. President Kibaki on the other hand basked in the glory of economic growth of the first five years of his 6

7 administration while at the same time promising to double the economy by attaining a double digit figure by President Kibaki s campaign proposals were largely silent on corruption and measures to fight it. It was during his 2007 Jamhuri day speech that he proposed to form a clean hands on cabinet if he were re-elected, amend the law to stop corrupt people from joining the politics and fight tribalism, because, he said, it was a form of corruption. Kalonzo Musyoka stuck to his theme of economic federalism as the only viable way of bringing about equity and addressing the historical socio and economic injustices the country has been subjected to since independence. In his economic blueprint, he promised to create more jobs by introducing a conducive environment for a 24-hour working nation. On the other hand, both Musyoka and Odinga not only spoke about corruption, but gave firm and very specific measures on how to end the scourge in which the Kenyan taxpayer has lost billions of shillings through dubious procurement procedures perpetrated by phony offshore companies. Musyoka s approach was that fighting corruption must start at the top, with the leaders declaring their wealth. He went on to declare his and challenged both his competitors, president Kibaki and Odinga to declare what they owned so as to show seriousness in the that war. Musyoka also promised free secondary education and committed himself to putting in place a national council to manage health care and universal health insurance scheme. As the incumbent President Kibaki relied more on the achievements of his first administration. He boasted of the economic growth of almost 7 per cent, from below zero when he took over in 2002, he dished out districts as inducement for the vote, but disguised as a principle of bringing administration closer to the people, he established the youth and women enterprise funds, ostensibly, to make capital accessible to the two vulnerable groups and improve their welfare and even promised teachers, judges and members of the disciplined forces a pay rise should he be re-elected. He promised to create an agency to construct low cost rental housing units and make it possible for ordinary folks to have decent housing at subsidized rates in an effort to eradicate slums in Nairobi. President Kibaki promised that the government would continue to provide free drugs for TB, HIV/Aids and malaria. Strangely, president Kibaki s silence on the way forward to the new constitution was the loudest throughout his campaign trail. The study shows that the only time he committed himself to a new constitution was during his official Jamhuri day speech at Nyayo stadium. 7

8 7. Gender Discrimination in Media Coverage of Female Presidential Candidate Discrimination means differential treatment. Sex discrimination means differential treatment because of sex, for example rules and actions that treat men and women differently on the basis of their sex. The media in Kenya seem to have perfected gender discrimination in covering the female candidates and in particular the print media coverage of Workers Congress Party Leader Nazlin Umar. The Nation s coverage of Nazlin Umar during the launch of her manifesto could best described as gender biased and frustrating to the lone woman presidential contestant, and largely demonstrated the skewed coverage of candidates outside the so called big three leading male candidates. Unlike the prominence given to the three presidential candidates while launching their manifestos last November, the Nation s coverage of Umar s launch was a clear demonstration that she was an insignificant or lesser contender, for the top job. Yet, in her manifesto she raised significant campaigns issues that the so-called leading contenders couldn t dare touch. The Workers Congress Party leader promised to slash the salaries of Members of parliament and other senior cadres in the civil service, enact a new constitution within six month of taking power and give tax exemption to workers who earn below Sh7,000. Instead of the print media detailing these proposals in broader sense they focused on the sideshows. They promoted the trivials and dramatized the occasion by highlighting the failure of crowds to attend the launch at Kamukunji grounds, occasioning a switch to a Nairobi hotel. The Nation allotted space of 130 cm. sq metres with most of the coverage focused on the drama and sideshows, the Standard s space of 240 told it all, while Kenya Times and the People were right on that cue. 8. The Role of ECK and the Disputed Presidential Poll Results The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) derives its power to conduct and supervise elections from the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act No 17 of Part of ECK s mission reads to become a model electoral commission that is to manage free, fair, credible and professional elections. Whether this mission was fulfilled in the 2007 Presidential Elections in Kenya is for the actors who participated in the elections to tell. However, it is noted that never before has this country witnessed the large voter turn out witnessed on the 27th December 2007 to make a choice on who they wanted to be their leaders at civic, constituency and presidential levels. Kenyans voted in their large numbers, waiting in the hot sun for several hours at crowded polling booths around the country. After the peaceful voting exercise across the country, results started streaming in at the ECK center based at KICC. The first results to be counted were for Parliamentary which saw majority of the members of the 9th Parliament voted out including nearly 20 government ministers defeated in their local constituencies. MPs aligned to ODM secured majority (99) of the seats and its Narc affiliate securing 3 seats. Kibaki s PNU got 43 seats and ODM-K 16 seats. Initially, the ODM presidential candidate Mr. Odinga appeared overwhelmingly destined for the presidency when he led Kibaki in six provinces. As the tallies from polling stations around the country came into the ECK center at KICC, Raila built up a lead with a huge vote margin of about 1 million. Then trouble began when the votes in Kibaki s strong hold of Central and Eastern 8

9 provinces began to stream in. The account that followed illustrated a list of anomalies, malpractices and illegalities that lay behind those results, raising questions as to the ethics, non-partisanship and professionalism of the ECK Commissioners and staff as well as to the validity of the supposed presidential election results. Matters became even worse as vote tallies were collected and recorded at the ECK center without valid statutory documents, Forms 16A, 16 and 17A, accompanying them as required in Presidential Elections. Although the ECK Regulations (Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act, Cap 7 of 2007) clearly states that the ECK shall not accept results that showed voter turnout of 100 per cent and above, the ECK Commissioners allowed returning officers who had returns over 100 per cent to correct them. They subsequently accepted and included such results for tallying without any explanation, for example, Maragwa constituency had given results amounting to a 115 per cent voter turnout but the returning officer was allowed to reduce them to per cent at KICC and these results were accepted for the final tally. Observers noticed discrepancies in the results transmitted from the constituencies to the ECK s headquarters at KICC. They also noticed that a number of the statutory documents for a number of constituencies were not presented as required and yet the Commissioners went a head and announced the results from these constituencies. Despite the protests from the ODM, Paramilitary police cleared KICC as the ECK Chairman announced Mwai Kibaki winner of the presidential election in a sealed room (Mwai Kibaki 4.58 million votes, Raila Odinga s 4.35 million and Kalonzo 880,000 votes). The news is relayed via the public Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) as other existing local and international media are locked out and thrown out of KICC. The December 27th presidential election in Kenya was flawed and fell short of being free and fair, the East Africa Community and the EU observer missions reported. In their verdict, the EU and EAC missions argued that the presidential vote tallying, in which President Kibaki was declared the winner, was grossly mismanaged, critically undermining the credibility of the final stage of the electoral process. On December 30, 2007, Mwai Kibaki was hurriedly sworn in as President of the Republic of Kenya at State House in Nairobi. Three forms of violence immediately broke out across the country: disorganized and spontaneous protests; organized militia activity; and disproportionate use of force by the Kenyan police force and General Service Unit (GSU). As a result, over 800 people have been killed, 4,000 exiled in Uganda and over 300,000 people displaced internally. Many more are in hospital nursing injuries from gun and arrow shots. Domestic and international election observers who monitored the final hours of the presidential vote tallying and announcements noticed shocking transgressions. The East African Community and the European Union released their reports which stated that the concluded Presidential Elections was flawed and fell below the international standards of a free and fair exercise. The observers pointed a finger at the ECK chairman, Mr Samwel Kivuitu saying he exhibited no control over the process of tallying and announcement of results. In particular, they reported they noted A number of utterances made by the ECK chairman cast doubt on the integrity and credibility of the commission. Further, observers reported that The ECK chairman displayed incompetence and weakness in the final management of the electoral process. 9

10 AWC-CAPF PRINT MEDIA MONITORING REPORT OF 2007 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN KENYA: 10