You have to admit that the ODM has
really won the battle with the media in Kenya and internationally, both before and after the election. Everyday,
the footage on television is on Kenyan police beating up protesting people.
The story of the
killings of the Kikuyu by the Kalenjin in Rift Valley and further south of the Kisii, the hundreds of
thousands of the internally displaced, have been yanked off the
headlines and it is the government and not the opposition that is being portrayed as being oppressive.
This is no coincidence. It is the result of the superb
efforts of the media people who advise ODM. It is not that the ODM has better leaders or programs or plans. It is their media team that is extremely savvy and creative.
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ODM spokesman, Salim Lone
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Here is the difference: While PNU was using PR-Marketing types like Marcus Courage and Nat Kangethe, ODM was using journalists/political communication types like Dick Morris, Kibisu Kabatesi, Salim Lone, Sarah Elderkin, Oketch Kendo, etc., all whom have considerable journalistic and spinning experience. They know how the media operates and are quick to leverage that knowledge to ODM's benefit.
These specialists provide the latest political communications strategies, to good effect: rapid response, opportunistic deployment, commandeering of the message of opponents and the powerful, targeting, multiple points of contact and authority, and so on.
For instance, when the US said it would not be "business as usual" in Kenya, Raila and the ODM appropriated the phrase, made it their own. Bear in mind that the term "Pentagon" was also borrowed, as was the "Orange" (as in Orange Revolution).
The PNU team on its part has the money but does not know how to work the media at all. Except for Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua, who is really trying his level best, there really is no one else fighting the huge media war. It could not be said more urgently, the PNU badly needs people who know how the media works. Consider the following:
1) During the tallying of the votes, when it became clear that Raila was going to lose the vote, he was advised by his media experts to stride into KICC, the Kenyatta International Conference Centre. Bear in mind that it was not necessary, it was not proper, for him as a candidate to be at the venue where the tallying and announcement was to take place. He could have remained at home or at his campaign headquarters awaiting the results.
Instead, in a very unusual move, he went to the KICC where he could cause maximum drama for the benefit of the assembled global media. His presence was the culmination of a spirited campaign of protest by ODM supporters, who had been advised to jam the KICC and make as much noise as possible (When ECK says it was intimidated, more than the presence of Martha Karua, it was the presence of the behemoth of a man called Miguna Miguna, who was menacing ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu and acting as a bodyguard to Ugenya MP James Orengo. No wonder the GSU had to be called in).
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ECK boss Samuel Kivuitu
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Raila was supposed to arrive and impugn the tallying and the announcement very publicly in front of all the assembled cameras of the global media. He would then create a ruckus for the cameras as he led a walkout that was barely long enough for the teargas to settle. To put the icing on the cake, he would return so speedily to address the members of the press, that they had not yet had time to pack their equipment and go.
2) When the news of the killings and displacement in the Rift Valley took over the headlines, ODM media experts employed clever tactics to deflect attention from the suffering Kikuyus, Kisiis and Bukusus in the Rift Valley. Recalling the undressing of the Kikuyu women in Uhuru Park in the 1980s, an event that captured the imagination of all freedom fighters and was recently popularized by Waangari Maathai’s biography, Unbowed, ODM media experts told ODM women supporters to undress for the cameras in Nairobi.
Unfortunately, because the women were not Kikuyu and do not take this form of symbolic curse seriously, and also because they were not paid enough, they failed to undress completely. They did not remove their bras and underwear. The international media was bored. Not enough body was shown by these professional women to warrant rolling the tape. Some women were even heard remarking "let Ida and Tess come here and do it"
Secondly, Raila himself was turned into a mortuary tour guide. He immediately arranged for the global media to tour Nairobi City Mortuary with their cameras where they saw – guess what – bodies! How surprising, a morgue with bodies in it! Although mortuary is always full of bodies, Raila claimed that the bodies were of his supporters. Apparently, no ordinary Kenyan had had died an ordinary death that week. All those at the Mortuary had been killed by policemen.
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Nairobi mortuary
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I must admit this was Raila’s best effort at swaying international opinion. Because of the universality of the emotions associated with death, the media forgot the first rule in journalism: if your mother tells you she loves you, check it out! That is how all those bodies became bodies of deceased ODM supporters. The dead do not talk. Interestingly, the Mortuary is usually closed to people who are not associated with any of the diseased. Raila may have impersonated a mourner to get in.
Thirdly, the media experts turned the attention to Kisumu. Using their British connections, they ensured that the BBC and ITN in particular were deployed in Kisumu where they reported on "police brutality." I remember seeing a white woman reporter talking about how police had shot some people, and she actually said the number of people shot by the police was 300 although every other organization was reporting 65 people dead in Kisumu. No source was indicated for that number. Behind the woman reporter were burnt out shells of cars and shops and illegal barricades, but she did not mention those or how they had happened. That is not news. These were just stage prop, you know, good stage material for an international report.
Then there was the powerful image of a lone ranger policeman as he hunted down and shot two "democracy protestors." The picture appeared suspicious in many respects: the individual who had been shot just couldn’t die – he kept standing up and defying the policeman. If this policeman was as blood thirsty as we are made to believe, he did not finish him off his prey as would be expected, although he (the prey) was alive when the policeman got to him. The scene then changed to a bunch of people carrying the fellow by his limbs. Some reports said he died. Other reports said he survived. He was even shown in hospital, surrounded by nurses and doctors.
But the important thing is that this "policeman" was alone. A commando. Acting alone. Very unlike Kenyan policemen. As someone who has watched the GSU, I can tell you that they don’t walk alone during operations. They operate in numbers because a single policeman, even when armed, is no match against an irate crowd. It is true that the Kenyan police have shot dead several people caught looting. But this video looked contrived. It was like all correspondents were getting advice from Jeff Koinange and his Nigerian buddies.
3) To counter Martha Karua’s Hardtalk interview, Raila himself was volunteered to face the BBC. The media advisers at ODM know that the Western media is always after the big fish. They were not going to refuse a piece of Raila if it was dangled. Unfortunately, the BBC interviewer was too rough - hence the HardTalk. The British intelligence had forgotten to give him the usual boiler plate questions. Raila ended up looking very damaged, despite his best effort to look composed and reasonable. He tried his best to say he condemned the violence, but justified the attack on innocent women and children taking shelter in a church on the basis that the arsonists were pursuing non-existent Kikuyu militants.
In another interview with Time magazine, Raila said he is "very satisfied" with the level of violence in Kenya as he himself is a general and generals do not usually go into the thick of battle. I am sure the ODM media experts were scratching their heads. Their greatest fear is that Raila’s carefully captivated image as a statesman, which his media handlers have worked really hard to fashion after his long career as a communist, will collapse right in front of the cameras.
Already, this carefully crafted facade is starting to collapse: the international media now knows who Fidel Castro is – and he is not the President of Cuba. They have also been questioning Raila’s claims that he is a blood relative of US presidential Candidate Barrack Obama, and have been working on the story of his connections with Islam fundamentalists, particularly after the burning of many churches in Kenya by Raila’s ODM supporters.
4) Raila has also been in many media outlets – Al Jazeera, National Public Radio, German TV, etc. He has been advised to play "available at all times." Even a high school reporter can interview him. Any publicity is good publicity.
5) In all these media opportunities, he has been advised to stick to the message. That it was Kibaki who rigged the election. That Odinga himself and his ODM did not rig, although the turnout in his strongholds hit the stratosphere. He is particularly keen to focus the debate on the presidential tally, after saying he did not want a tally and wanted Kibaki to vacate office. He is afraid that if a recount is done, it will expose the fact that most ODM MPs were rigged in and therefore diminish the majority ODM has in parliament. Unfortunately, election petitions will soon start to be filed. ODM’s choice weapon against the petitioners? Probably violence aimed at intimidating the petitioners. Dissent is not looked upon very kindly in ODM strongholds and petitioners will be seen as going against the party interests. The other alternative is to send Orengo to the courts, which means he will have less time to make noise in parliament.
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The General, 'just Man U and Chelsea?'
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Raila’s other message, on which he has been consistent, is that he will not go to the courts. He has been repeating the line that courts are full of Kibaki appointees who will decide the case in Kibaki’s favor. This in itself constitutes serious group libel of the Kenyan judiciary. Sure, there can be delays, but Kenyan judges are fairly impartial and I highly doubt any judge would dare fudge their reasoning in a matter as important as a presidential election petition. In any case, such a case would probably not be heard by one judge, but several. What Raila should be pressing for is a fast decision of the court. As it now, he has wasted three weeks. This tells you that he is not interested in a court decision, even a fair one. There is no reason why he not gone to court AND protested at the same time.
What Raila is afraid of is that the courts will reveal the irregularities in ODM strongholds, resulting in by-elections for MPs, which might in turn result in a decrease in ODM’s numbers in parliament.
6) The occasion provided by the swearing in of MPs is also a nice study in media manipulation by ODM spin doctors. To create maximum anxiety and global public interest, ODM said its MPs would sit on the government side. Everyone waited for this day with bated breath, expecting a physical clash between the opposing camps. Everyone in that parliament knew there would be no fight; these people are buddies. Can you imagining Raila, with his own hand, physically harming Kibaki who once appointed him a powerful minister? Can you imagine Raila and Uhuru fighting? How can in-laws fight? With our appetite for confrontation whetted, ODM spin doctors were ready to pounce. They told Orengo to come out firing with both guns. A rookie MP, Ababu Namwamba was detailed to froth at the corners of his mouth for show. Needless to say, none of their theatrics had any substantive effect on the operations of parliament. However, the whole theatre was supposed to be consumed by the viewers, including international ones. ODM MPs had been detailed to use the absolute privilege of parliament to say anything. They said that Raila had won by 500,000 votes( something of a climbdown from Raila's previous boast of 1,000,000); easy to say in Parliament, harder to prove in court.
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Happy Days; for them
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7) Another tactic that was deployed by the ODM image managers was the constant use of prayer. The violent protests were initially renamed "prayer gatherings." They must be the only prayers where people died. Even the Christ- with whom some in the ODM are forcing similarities and who prayed at the garden of Gethsemane, did not die. Then, Raila and Ruto, the double R gang, were asked to kneel for a photograph as Bishop Wanjiru prayed for them. Besides the spectacle of ungodly people praying, the picture was also meant to show that ODM has a resident bishop. After its secret MoU with an obscure Muslim group, ODM has been dying to improve its Christian credentials. Bishop Wanjiru may be damaged goods, but she is a good catch.
The totality of these examples tells you one thing: ODM is image, not substance. Unfortunately, because PNU does not know how to respond, it is using GSU to fight what should properly be a media war.
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