“Until lions produce their own historians the story of the hunt will glorify only the hunter.” African proverb
Foreign media covering Kenyan 2013 elections
NAKURU, Kenya – Foreign reporters who were parachuted into Kenya to cover the 2013 general elections expressed their disappointments on Monday over the lack of inter-ethnic clashes in the aftermath of the largely peaceful elections in the country.
“We came to Kenya hoping to see some action, some post-election chaos, and we didn’t find anything,” said Alex de Motormouth, head of post-election violence department in CNN’s Africa Division. “We just wasted our time. I can’t believe it.”
Motormouth showed Sahan Journal an already prepared copy of his news script in the event that violence should occur. The intro reads: “Early Monday morning, a blood-thirsty mob chanting blood-cuddling tribal war songs and waving machetes chased Mzee Ali Baba Muchene down Nakuru’s main street into an alley. By the time they were done with him, the body of Mzee Muchene was left with deep slashes and vultures had already started circling to finish what was left of the 80-year-old.”
“Mzee Muchene was from the wrong tribe – the Waue – and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. His assailants were from the Wamalize tribe,” the second paragraph of Motormouth’s copy reads.
Motormouth said that he had spoken to several foreign correspondents who were “understandably sad” after they failed to write any violence-related stories in their second week in Kenya.
Sahan Journal also spoke to Joe Littleworm, a 26-year-old nervous foreign reporter for the Wall Street Journal. We caught up with Littleworm as he stood at the corner of Kenyatta Avenue in Nakuru brandishing his brand new Canon 7D camera, waiting for some action. He expressed his disappointment and frustrations with the lack of bloodletting and communal violence in Nakuru.
He said this was his first foreign assignment for the newspaper and he was initially delighted to cover the Kenyan election and what would follow after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission announced final election results.
Littleworm said he’d book a flight back to New York on Tuesday after witnessing nauseating sights of jubilant people running around in the streets of Nakuru celebrating the victory of their preferred candidates for the various positions.
“What the hell man! what the hell. I don’t see young men wielding machetes in the streets. I was not expecting this at all,” Littleworm said, teary-eyed.
“It’s just my crazy American brain telling me that I should go back to New York and spend some quality time with my wife when what I really want to see is something like what happened after the 2007 elections,” he added, mournfully looking at his mint-new $1,800 camera.
Looking beyond the disappointment of his first foreign trip, Littleworm said he was looking forward to coming back to Kenya in the next election. “I hope I will not be disappointed when I come back in five years,” he said.
In the meantime, he said he just might swing by the Democratic Republic of Congo on his way back to New York. There were rumors of resurgent cannibalism among the Kulawatu of the Congo forest.
“Now, that’s some real news right there. Attaboy!” he said and waved our reporter goodbye.
Source: Sahan Journal
