Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #RiversideAttack
Most recents (6)
Following the pictures by the New York Times on the #RiversideAttack in Kenya, questions have been raised on the representation of black bodies in death. More importantly, how the Western media covers the death of Africans during crisis like the #DusitAttack in Kenya
Thread!!!
Thread!!!
The New York Times published gory pictures of dead Kenyans who were victims of a terrorist attack. It was less than 24 hours after the attack that the pictures were published as the feature image of the New York Times article. Kenyans were still in mourning and shock from the
attack. Kenyans on Twitter raised ethical, moral and philosophical questions on the publishing and protection of the dignity and sanctity of those who had just died. Their singular demand to the @nytimes was to pull down the pictures. A demand the New York Times is yet to heed.
Yesterday thousands of Kenyans questioned the ethics of @kimidefreytas and the @nytimes after they ran gruesome photos of the #RiversideAttack. We've questioned the ethics of photos that accompany her stories from Africa before.
On Dec. 26, a story by @kimidefreytas that she has pinned to her Twitter feed shows the face of a dead man in #DRC.
nytimes.com/2018/12/26/wor…
nytimes.com/2018/12/26/wor…
Here at @GlobalPress we've worked in #DRC for years, including in this area where this photo was taken. Aside from the ethical concerns of publishing the photo of this dead person and showing his face, the caption also lacked a name.
There were many heroes at Riverside all are worthy of praise, but Omar Muchiris interview really resonated with me. The way he recounts it with calmness but then you compare the look on his face after the attack, the trauma in his eyes after he faced death!! Very sad...
My highlight of the interview is when Omar said he lost his gun at Riverside and attackers were shooting. He thought it was the end of him so he decided to pray. He quotes the Quran saying that everyone must die in the end to say he had no fear to face the terrorists...
It’s interesting that the same Quran verse used by terrorists to encourage suicide bombers is the same Omar used to get courage at Riverside...“Every soul shall taste death. We try you with good and evil [in this life], and in the end, you shall return to us.” Al-Anbiya 35
I feel like a lot of foreign correspondents in Kenya are missing the point of the critique of the @nytimes over the #RiversideAttack photos. /1
The majority of the tweets I’ve seen about this from #KOT have essentially said “please take down the photo of brutally murdered black people, esp since you wouldn’t show an equivalent photo if they were white.” /2
They asked the NYT reporter to take down the photo. She said she doesn’t pick the photos. Neither she nor some other foreign correspondents discussing this have acknowledged that showing dead bodies of some races but not others raises real questions of journalistic ethics. /3
1. As foreign correspondents and media houses define their version of Kenya & #Riversideattack in a race to the bottom,lifting their heroes(@thesun @dailymirror)and denying dignity to our dead (@nytimes) I will tell my story,my Kenyan story of the same day.
2. It started with a Whatsapp message - Gunshots and explosion at 14 Riverside avoid the area. Within 20 minutes almost everybody in Nairobi had warned someone else via WhatsApp to be safe - because we use our tech to care. 
3. Roll call began in our Whatsapp groups - ppl report in is everyone ok? We checked on each other cos for many Nyumba Kumi is my Whatsapp group.
Glad he found his daughter but really? “Islamic fundamentalism”? I thought ALL terrorism has no place in the modern world, why only focus on one religion. What a way to cause division instead of unity!! #riversideattacks
It’s a shame to hear some attack “Islamic fundamentalism” for Riverside instead of terrorism like from @KBonimtetezi, especially considering Muslims died in the attacks were part of the rescue @AbbasGullet. Blame the attackers not the religion and its adherents! #riversideattack
@KBonimtetezi Many Muslims prayed for your family and your daughter and other victims. So your post is very offensive! “Fundamentalism” simply means strict adherence to a religion. Stop using a sensational Western stereotype to Kenya to divide us!! #WeareOne
