Dear Daily Nation: Shame On You
Here at UP we get very frustrated when newspapers such as the Daily Nation run stories that are sensationalistic and give a forum to political parties such as the Republican Liberty Party, helping them spread their message of hate.
It’s the responsibility of news agencies such as the NMG to not only report the news but to at times censor those among us who would call for the wholesale slaughter of particular members of our society. Whenever we, as Kenyans, hear the word hate speech, we think of politicians at rallies denigrating people of a particular ethnicity and calling for their expulsion from the community. We never seem to realise that rhetoric such as that of the Republican Liberty Party (RLP) is thinly-veiled hate speech.
Asking for all gay men and women to be stoned in the street or imprisoned for life, is the same thing as asking all Kikuyu men and women to leave their homes in Rift Valley, or Lamu and go to Nyeri. It’s rhetoric directed at a slice of our society that amounts to asking for their slaughter.
It is because of political parties such as the RLP, who have the gall to say they stand for human rights and equality, that gay gospel artist Joji Baro was allegedly attacked, beaten and robbed by a hate mob over the weekend. MPs such as Julius Ndegwa (Lamu West) and John Njoroge (Kasarani), probably clapped their hands when they heard that this man was treated inhumanely just because of his sexual orientation.
Should the Daily Nation publish stories about hate crimes such as the one that befell Baro? Yes it should. However in the case of this story, it was printed in less than fifty words near the classifieds section, where the ads for high end prostitutes masquerading as masseuses are nestled. When the story is about those who would have us create inhumane laws, then if the article they published on Sunday is anything to go by, they give it an entire page in print.
By giving more prominence to the things people say than to the things that happen to real people, our country’s media undermines the debate about gay rights in our society. We never read about what happens when such laws and thoughts propagate through society, that lives are ruined and people can live in constant fear of beatings, rape and death.
Many of those who we vote for power have no concern about actual human rights beyond something to talk about during election campaigns. These are people who think that they can win an election by inciting people to stone those who are different. They’ve done it before.
These people should not be given the space, on print or online, to vent their gospel of hate. Their dirty politicking should never be allowed to leave their ugly little website or their dead facebook accounts.
The Daily Nation should know better. We expect much more from them. We expect them to take quotes such as those by our Attorney General, who says that if the high court grants gay people equal rights, then we should say goodbye to humanity but we should also be able to pick up a newspaper and learn that gay people are human and deserve to be treated no better or worse than everyone else.
