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The Daily Nation: 'The Truth' of Deception PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ombuya E. Okong'o   
Sunday, 23 November 2008

When in April of last year I criticized The Standard and called the Kenyan newspaper a tabloid for running what I thought was a speculative, sensational story, some accused me of singling out the publication.

“The (Daily) Nation had run with a similar story only the same week,” one respondent wrote.

“Does anyone have any proof that [Nicholas] Biwott was at all involved in Ouko’s murder? Did you consider The Nation a tabloid for publishing that?” another one asked.

And my reply to them was that The Nation was not the one “moaning about a (government) vendetta, so let’s keep it out of this until its time comes.”

That time is now.

I’m dying to hear how Alphayo Otieno, a conman residing in Nairobi, was able to fool editors of The Nation – the flagship of Kenyan journalism – to think he was writing stories from the United States.

On Nov. 4, the day Americans went to the polls to elect their 44th president – and a day it looked certain that Barack Obama would be that president – I received a Google Alert that my name had appeared somewhere on the Internet. Such alerts often come from stories I have written, but this one was different. It came from The Nation, a newspaper I have never written for.

Alphayo Otieno claims to have taken this picture in Hawai'i for a fabrication he wrote for The Nation. The story is a plagiarism of an article by David Maraniss of the Washington Post. See link at end of posting.

I followed a link to a story in The Nation’s Web site titled “Only a few had faith in Obama in the early days” (by Alphayo Otieno) to see how my name had been associated to such a story.

“Obama ni wetu! Obama ni wetu! (Obama is ours) shouted Kenyan fans at the San Diego’s Petco Park, stomping their feet and blowing horns, dancing and waving their national flag,” the story began.

I was at Petco Park that day for the USA Sevens Rugby tournament on Feb. 11, 2007 – the day after Obama announced his entry in the race to the White House. After the Americans thwarted Kenya’s efforts to win a trophy in the competition, only Obama’s candidacy and his connection to their homeland could console Kenyans.

I was at Petco Park that Sunday morning and those rhythmic words Alphayo Otieno claimed to have crafted are my words. They come from “Obama-mania Comes to Kenya”, an article I wrote for The San Francisco Chronicle soon after I returned from San Diego.

Otieno shameless plagiarism did not end in the first sentence of the article he submitted to The Nation. In fact, Otieno lifted the first 10 paragraphs out of my work, almost word for word. He also took words I had written and attributed them to other people.

For example, the quotes Otieno credits to Valerie Okoth and Michael Agwanda – his fictitious sources – appear verbatim in my article. Later in the story, Otieno deceives readers by implying that he actually spoke to me.

My further investigations revealed that this was not an isolated case of Otieno fabricating stories. On the day after the U.S. elections, Alphayo Otieno submitted another story, which The Nation published under the headline: “Win Brings Pride to Kenyan Diaspora.”

No one in America can read that story and not wonder how in one day Alphayo Otieno swiftly zooms through Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas, Detroit, Houston (which is in Texas, by the way), New York and Los Angeles to find that “virtually all Kenyans joined in the celebrations as they flew Kenyan flags on their cars, with majority adorning branded T-shirts and caps.”

Otieno claims to have talked to Kenyans like “Elizabeth Akinyi, a hair dresser in Kansas” and “Eliud Thuo, a resident of Maryland.” While such names might be hard to verify, those of “post-graduate student and staff at the University of Missouri, Millie Kavoki” or Dr. Dan Kuria at the University of Nebraska, or “Agai Yier, a student in Columbia” are easy for even a 10-year-old with Internet access to fact check.

Every major university in the U.S. assigns everyone affiliated with the institution with either an e-mail address or a phone number, or both. That information is kept in a database and made accessible to anyone.

What is more despicable than a scumbag like Alphayo Otieno’s lack of ethics is that editors at The Nation were negligent. The did not take such a simple step to “protect the integrity of our journalism,” as Nation Media Group, the paper’s parent company, proclaims on its Web site.

When I finally alerted The Nation about Otieno’s fraudulent articles, New Editor Njeri Rugene – who I must commend for acting promptly to pull the filth Otieno had submitted – had this to say:

“I am actually ashamed to admit to you that the fellow conned some editor here. I am even more ashamed to let you know that our investigations so far reveal that the fellow wrote the so-called stories from Nairobi.”

Rugene added that the editor, whose name she did not reveal, “did not ask for [Otieno’s] telephone contact but they just communicated through email.”

She said the editor might have trusted Otieno “because he had seen a few opinion pieces bearing this man’s byline published in our pages.” Rugene also said that the opinion editor “had sensed something fishy and stopped using [Otieno’s] articles.” That left me wondering why the opinion editor did not inform other editors and the editorial staff.

This sort of negligence is inexcusable. In fact, I would go a step farther and say that this carelessness is unforgivable considering that many of The Nation’s stories are reprinted in publications like Allafrica.com and other media across the cyber universe.

Rugene says The Nation’s top editors have launched an investigation to see how this despicable assault on the reader’s trust was allowed to happen. During that investigation some questions must be answered.

How did Otieno’s relationship with The Nation begin? How did he get paid, considering that he “lived” in America? Is the paper going to sue him for fraud in order to get him to return whatever money he was paid? Nation Media Group says that “Such cases will be investigated and those who are found to have flouted our ethical principles will be dealt with firmly.” Doesn’t this negligence amount to flouting ethics? What disciplinary action will be taken against the editors whose negligence facilitated Otieno’s deception?
Nation Media Group pleads with the public to “bring to the attention of the management any cases where our reporters, photographers and editors may have violated our established ethical principles.”

Here is one case and a chance for The Nation to defend “the truth” as the newspaper’s motto declares.

Important Note: Further inquiry into this matter has established that Alphayo Otieno alos managed to fool The Standard, Kenya’s No. 2 daily. Unlike The Nation, The Standard still has Otieno’s articles online. An email I sent to the Standard more than two weeks still remains unanswered. To compare Alphayo Otieno’s fabrications with the original articles he plagiarized see “Fabrications in Kenyan Publications.”

Ombuya E. Okong'o
About the author:
Okong'o a regular contributor to Kenya Imagine is an award-winning journalist, writer and humorist. An associate editor and director of communications at New America Media, Okong'o also contributes to Frontline/World. You can read more about him on his blog Okong'o's Policy .





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protestations about truth
written by Ngigi wa Kamau , November 24, 2008
There's a long time honored tradition in Kenya dictating that before liars spew falsehoods, they must proclaim the truth of their message.

I'm sure you've come across Kenyans prefixing lies with caveats like "bila uongo.....!" "why lie",& "kwa nini nikudanganye?"

The Daily Nation is obviously a keen disciple of this ritual.

However, anyone with a keen mind ought, always, to be warily sensitive to protestations of truth especially from the media.

I once worked at an organization where one morning in 2005, we awoke to read of a supposed armed holdup at our workplace and several injuries in the purveyor of "Truth". I have never been able to explain whether the "Truth" was vying for a prize in creative imagination.

Going by standard practice among footsoldiers of the large media houses (getting paid -by businesses, politicians, etc- to provide favourable coverage) I think the capacity of the two largest circulation publications to purvey anything other than imagination & innuendo is greatly hamstrung.

Ngigi
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And We Are Shocked?
written by acolyte , November 24, 2008
Journalistic and Editorial standards in my opinion are very wanting in Kenya. I have read articles that have been sorely in need of fact checking, this is most prevalant when the subject or the writer is abroad and the editor is Kenyan based, I once read a story where the interviewee (a lady who modeled in Kenya and had gone to the US for further studies) claimed to have done modeling shows on cat walks in New York, Miami and in Europe. Having known her personally and also well aware of the fact that it takes years for someone to get established as an international model, I was well aware that she was lying through her teeth and a simple google search vindicated me; since our model had no mention whatsoever on any fashion website. If I could establish that with only an internet connection and a few e-mail, then shouldn't an editor be able to do the very same thing?
But why should we be surprised when merit is dead in both large media houses? Editors have the journos they favor and I guess this "gentleman" was one of them. Plus what's even worse, this isnt an isolated case; many KEnyan reporters have been known for lifting posts from Kenyan blogs and passing the material as their own with nary a mention.
I think a journalistic revival is in order.

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We are not shocked
written by That Kenyan Loser , November 24, 2008
There is not one Kenyan I have talked to about this who is shocked that such a thing happened in Kenyan media.

The idea here is that we have kept quiet for so long. It is time to act.

I agree with you that when the story is from abroad editors tend to take it as gospel truth and therefore do not check facts. I think it comes from that inferiority complex that pleagues our people -- the same complex that used to make employers prefer people educated abroad, even though those people had lied about going to college.

--Okong'o
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written by mkosakabila , November 25, 2008
The Nation is not alone on this. About 5 years ago the New York Times was faced with a similar, though somewhat more egregious fraud viz Jayson Blair.

While Alphayo Otieno violated a most fundamental principle of journalism,truth, and should be punished for such fraud if the necessary investigations so prove, this situation points in fact to a deeper problem within the Nation, a failure of its editing process. Indeed, if this allegation is true, how sure are we that what we read from the media house has integrity? It is only reasonable to demand that the nation distance itself from this contributor, and more, accept responsibility for the violation of journalistic standards.

In the end Nation must point out what it plans to do to enforce and uphold those standards. If only to restore readers’ trust and confidence.

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Before Jason Blair
written by That Kenyan Loser , November 25, 2008
There was Stephen Glass. Rather than try to justify our mistakes because of earlier wrongs, let's look at the fact that we did not learn from those mistakes.
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written by mkosakabila , November 25, 2008
The idea here is that we have kept quiet for so long

Do you have evidence of this? Or is that just another blanket statement?
It would be even more helpful, for learning purposes, if you could share that with the public. For if a pattern of negligence can be demonstrated, then the Nation would have an even greater compelling to deal with the problem more decisively and transparently. As it stands, though no less serious, they can claim Alphayo Otieno's was a one-off glitch, in a generally well managed editorial process. The Standard is not tackled in any meaningful way by the author of this contribution.

In addition, what are the lessons to Nation that can be distilled from the Glass incident? What did his employers do (that the New York Times did not) that Nation could learn from?
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written by That Kenyan Loser , November 25, 2008
Do you have evidence of this? Or is that just another blanket statement?


Here is a story I did two years ago about corruption in Kenyan media. Note that an editor at The Standard says, “It’s openly known in the industry that journalists take bribes from politicians.”

http://www.mshale.com/article.cfm?articleID=1347

Also in this "Protecting the Integrity of Our Journalism" The Nation acknowlegdes the problem.

http://www.nationmedia.com/News/-/478320/478332/-/vc2uei/-/index.html

As per lessons to be learned from the Glass and Blair issues, I don't think the newspapers need anyone to tell them the right thing to do. But just incase they do, here is a simple step: Check facts.

Did you know that this could have been avoided if the editor had asked Alphayo Otieno for a phone number to prove that he lived in the U.S? Did you know that if you go to the websites of the universities you can look people up to see if there really is a Dr. Kuria at the University of Nebraska?

Fixing this mess only needs a computer, a phone and the will, the former two of which these news organizations have. Now let them work on the latter.
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The Standard had its day
written by That Kenyan Loser , November 25, 2008
The Standard is not tackled in any meaningful way by the author of this contribution.


Click on the first link in my posting and you will see that I have talked about The Standard before. In fact, I'm surprised you missed it since I began the article with a line about me calling ,The Standard a tabloid.
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written by acolyte , November 25, 2008
@ mkosakabila
I have seen the rot in the Kenyan media first hand. I have sat down with journalists who have admitted to me they have written investigative articles from the comfort of a bar stool. I'm not saying that all Kenyan journos are rotten but once tribalism and nepotism took over, it's no surprise when the rot rises to the top. Brown envelope journalism has been in existance in Kenya for a long time, you need to go to a political rally of sorts and hear a politician spew all sorts of tribal hate but what you read in the paper the next day is a completely different account of events that paint the politician as an erudite advocate of local progress.
Plus reading the Standard one can clearly see journalism taking a back seat to half baked features and poorly written opinion pieces. Kenyan journalism needs a revival.......
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Sawa
written by mkosakabila , November 25, 2008
Hey acolyte and KTLoser,
Thanks for all your clarifications. I am utterly, completely convinced that the Kenyan media is rotten thru n thru!!
Also, being a comparativist--i think there's great value in finding out how humans, wherever they are, solve problems. Guess that doesnt apply to journalism. Too bad!
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Kenyan journalism rotten
written by Kim G , November 27, 2008
As a Kenyan, living in Kenya, and with daily access to local media, the story of Alphayo Otieno is not surprising. The irony is that its extremely difficult for talented and trained local journalists to get an article published in the Nation.

If you are a fresh college graduate, and you go to Nation newsroom, the Editor will tell you to 'contribute' articles before you can hope for employment. Fair enough, you say. But what they don't tell you is that the chances of getting your article published are akin to finding ice cream in hell. There are too many competing interests at Nation, to the extent that some people get their articles printed without any cross-checking of facts.

Nation cannot plead ignorance, knowing the way they work, Alphayo must have some pretty good connections at Kimathi Street. Don't be surprised that when all this blows over, you get to see his byline once again.
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Mediocre Journalism
written by Kim G , November 27, 2008
Sorry for posting again: I've just read Alphayo's articles on the Nation website. They are mediocre at best. Its difficult to understand how an experienced editor could allow the articles to go through. The quality of Alphayo's writing should have raised alarm bells. But, like I emphasized in my previous comments, he must have good connections at Kimathi Street.
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Where is the Q for Nation Bashing?
written by jaya wardene , November 28, 2008
I fully concur with all the above comments and bila kuwadanganya if I died, went to heaven and came back to life as a DPP my very first task would be to bring the Nation and Standard papers before the High court. I would charge them jointly with the most serious charge of systematic, cynical and institutionalised Abuse of the Kenyan Readership and crimes against basic intelligence. I would also charge them with several counts of promoting intolerance and pandering to the lowest common denominator.

The long charge sheet would also include plagiarism, unattributed stories (aka reports by 'Nation reporter') and other such techniques that the two main dailies use to spin lies and confuse issues to the satisfaction of their benefactors.

I may be a bit of a cynic and when I buy the paper on the street I usually check to see that they have at least go the date correct...you guys are too young to remember this but when I was a kid the Nation published a complete fabrication that JM Kariuki was alive and well in Zambia whilst he lay in the City mortuary. For me they buried the truth then and have never really uncovered it.

peace
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My paper is still the Nation
written by John Ongeri , November 29, 2008
I don't normally write comments here though I readily admit to being addicted to KI and I must call in for my daily fix. What a disappointment then to read so many short-sighted comments here criticising the DN, its writers and editors.

The DN is a mirror of Kenyan society and the things that you all despair about the Nation are the same things that we despair about our leaders in Politics, Business or Religious affairs.

The paper is certainly an important source of information and has been instrumental in exposing many corrupt practices in the government and civil service. There was one particular Nation reporter who will always be my hero. The poor chap suffered great hardships and torture in the hands of the late Hezekiah Oyugi and the whole Nakuru District administration machinery when he doggedly investigated malpractice in Nakuru land buying companies in the late 80s.

I feel that perhaps some commentators are not happy with the current editorial team. Editors and writers, journalists and reporters will come and go but as long as there is a Kenya Nation there will always be a Daily Nation. Many have tried to usurp her crown but none can quite get the mix that makes her the most successful paper in East and Central Africa.


ps will they ever find someone to fill the late whispers' shoes?

pps I am not employed at Nation Towers, btw.
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Ongeri Misses the Point
written by That Kenyan Loser , November 29, 2008
The DN is a mirror of Kenyan society and the things that you all despair about the Nation are the same things that we despair about our leaders in Politics, Business or Religious affairs.

Ongeri,
I absolutely agree with you about the Nation not being any different from politicians, big business and religious propaganda. The point we are trying to make here is that a newspaper that claims to be all about the truth should in no way resemble the bureaucracies it is supposed to watch.

Most of us realize that the Nation and the Standard are here and it would be foolish for anyone to think we can get rid of them. What we can do is to make sure that they serve the interests of Kenyans, not the goons in Parliament and GK.

You might find this shocking but I read the papers online everyday and I often find a well-written story. I have worked in someway or another with a lot of great Kenyan journalists and even recommended some for freelance work in foreign media.

What those of us who care about these hardworking men want is to see them in an environment that will allow them to excel and serve Kenyans.

Lest anyone think that Kenyan media don't owe wananchi anything. You have admitted that a journalist from the Nation was tortured. There were so many Kenyans who met the same fate or worse while fighting for press freedom in Kenya. I wonder what they would say if they learned that they endured all that suffering to enable editors to hire guys like Alphayo Otieno.

We must ensure that the work of those who fought for press freedom does not end in vain. One way to do so is to watch the watchdogs and make sure that the press uses the freedoms Kenyans helped it earn responsibly.

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Thanks
written by Captain , January 26, 2009
I am happy to know that I am not the only victim of plagiarism ancouraged, promoted and abetted by editors of the BIG TWO in Kenya. And yous should see the response from the editors after I complained. And even more, some blocked me from sending or submitting opinion pieces to them. And on 21 Dec, 2008 I called quits after getting vitiriol for publishing an opinion that Kenyan journalist are proud of being tipped and bribed. For some strange reason the Nation published the piece (http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/O...index.html)!
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