Since 2016 when my name first appeared in press concerning my private life, I have done some interviews and turned down alot more than I have accepted. Often my interviews are focused on the work I do in the hope that it educates and empowers others.
My argument has always been that my personal life is not news worthy.
As I understand it, the job of media is to inform, educate and empower. This is the essence of free press - to enhance critical thought and then to drive positive change. #StoriesIWantToRead
Since the focus is on me again and I still don't consider myself newsworthy, here are a couple of stories that I wish were national news. These are stories, I would like to see on the front page: #StoriesIWantToRead
I want to see change in my country. But it has to start with media, the very powerful source of infomation that unlike alot of other institutions, we still have some level of trust in.
It is not by chance that media is called the 4th Estate. In lieu of a strong opposition, media really should be holding fort.
There was a time when newspapers spoke such truth to power that people read particular articles in secret. Folding the paper over so as not to reveal the questions that articles raised.
"The media are not the holders of power, but they constitute by and large the space where power is decided." - Manuel Castelles
It's time that the media handed power back to the people. It can only do so if it provides content that informs, educates and empowers. The media can raise consciousness, can fullfil the greatest role in redirecting our country from the bleak future that we are hurrying toward.
Kenyans are capable of radical change. Kenyans are capable of innovation and are of great resilience. The media should not waste us by having us believe that we have nothing of substance that is newsworthy.
We also don't have much time to waste. I am not the news. The news is what we are leaving in the dark. Media can determine the future of our country everyday, on that front page by casting light into the dark. On just that one page, media can make or break us as a nation.
It is time.
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Tina here is not wrong about @PeponiHotel a few years ago, I booked a trip to Shela & decided to have lunch on the terrace. When I suggested to my host that I was planning to go there, she was hesitant but would'nt explain why. Nonetheless, I sat at an empty table on the terrace.
Shortly, a waiter came to inform me that the terrace is reserved for hotel guests, if I could move to the balcony on the side. I saw nothing odd - as this is common practice in some places. I moved. Had my lunch and left.
Next day I thought to have a sundowner there as the place seemed quite popular. I sat on the balcony. I noticed that the locals (Black) were only seated on the balcony, mostly toward the back. The terrace & main restaurant was full of White folk. Again I thought - hotel guests.
Something had not been sitting right with my spirit from #KOT and other Africans on the protests in America. Somehow folks have forgotten that less that 60 years ago we were in the same position on the African continent and Civil Rights leaders joined us in war.
It was on the basis that; you are a Black person in the US as much as you are a Black person in Africa. Here our oppression was colonialism. To the world then and now, it was racism. You were considered incapable then as you are now.
The fatigue you see in America today is the fatigue your forefathers felt deeply 60 years ago. What little political, economic and social freedom we have scrapped together today is the result of a global movement against Black oppression.