VZCZCXRO4826
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHNR #4804/01 3521259
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181259Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3943
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NAIROBI 004804 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF, AF/E, AF/RSA, AF/EPS, IIP, IIP/AF 
POSTS FOR PAO 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL OPRC PHUM KPAO KE
 
SUBJECT: MEDIA COVERAGE OF KENYAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN: REASONABLE 
BALANCE, WITH NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS 
 
REF: Nairobi 04755 
 
¶1.  Summary: A UNDP-funded, independent assessment of Kenyan 
mainstream media coverage in the run-up to the December 27 general 
election indicated that, from November 10 to December 10, media 
coverage was generally balanced and accurate, with a few notable 
exceptions.  This coincided with US Embassy's more anecdotal 
analysis, which concurred that the major print and electronic 
outlets gave sufficient coverage to the leading parties' activities 
 
to allow voters to make an informed choice.  While some of the media 
 
houses gave slightly more preferential treatment to one candidate or 
 
party over the others, the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation 
 
(KBC) and privately-owned Citizen radio and television were 
conspicuous in their extra coverage of President Kibaki and his 
Party of National Unity (PNU). The mainstream media largely avoided 
 
hate speech and incitement, but hate messages appeared in vernacular 
 
media and in nontraditional media sources, i.e. websites and blogs. 
 
Kenyan voters have easy access to diverse media voices, including 
ridicule and critiques of prominent politicians and the most senior 
 
government officials.  End Summary. 
 
UNDP Monitoring of Media in Campaign 
----------------------- ------------ 
 
¶2.  The UNDP contracted with Strategic Public Relations & Research 
limited (SPRR) to monitor the media during the 2007 General Election 
 
campaign to determine the degree of equitable reporting on electoral 
 
issues as measured in terms of balance, accuracy, impartiality and 
fairness. The media were assessed with regard to the Code of Conduct 
 
for Journalistic Practice which provides guidelines on issues 
including misrepresentation, discrimination, and covering ethnic, 
religious, and sectarian conflict.  SPRR also used the Code of 
Conduct for Journalistic Practice, developed by editors and 
journalists, to assess: accuracy and fairness; sources of 
information; outside influences; the role of media owners and 
opinion polls; the use of hate speech and incitement; publication of 
 
advertorials and attacks and threats; and separation of fact and 
opinion.  The SPRR reports covered the three major parties -- 
President Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU), Raila Odinga's 
Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), and Kalonzo Musyoka's Orange 
Democratic Movement-Kenya (ODM-K). 
 
¶3.  SPRR monitored the six largest newspapers (Nation, Standard, 
Kenya Times, People, East African, Nairobi Star); the top four 
television stations (KBC, NTV, KTN, Citizen); and the six key radio 
 
stations (KBC, KISS, Easy FM, Classic, Simba, Capital).  They also 
monitored vernacular radio (Musyi, Mulembe, Ramogi, Coro, Kass, 
Egessa, Inooro, Sayare, Iqra, and Kameme).  SPRR publicly issued its 
 
analysis each month between September and December.  The December 13 
 
report covered approximately November 10 to December 10 and these 
results reflected those of the previous reports.  It concluded there 
 
was a fair attempt by the mainstream media -- with a few exceptions 
 
-- to keep their coverage of all major candidates and parties 
reasonably balanced, not giving excessive coverage and support to 
anyone.  The primary exception was the state-run Kenya Broadcasting 
 
Corporation, which showed strong partiality to the incumbent from 
the beginning, despite assurances that this would not be the case. 
 
Samuel Kivuitu, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, 
publicly castigated KBC management for their biased coverage.  We 
did the same in a letter from the Ambassador to President Kibaki and 
 
his top two competitors (reftel). 
 
Balanced Radio Coverage of Parties 
------------------ --------------- 
 
¶4.  Radio is the primary news source for the Kenyan people.  Four of 
 
the six radio stations, Capital FM, KISS FM, Easy FM, and Hope FM, 
provided reasonably balanced coverage of the top two political 
 
NAIROBI 00004804  002 OF 004 
 
 
parties with only a few minutes of air time between them.  In 
contrast, state-owned KBC English and Kiswahili services and Citizen 
 
Radio provided significantly more coverage to the President's PNU 
activities than to either of the rival opposition parties while 
Classic FM and Simba FM were even more biased toward Odinga's ODM 
party. 
 
Less Balance in Covering Candidates 
----------------------- ----------- 
 
¶5.  The majority of radio stations showed a greater degree of bias 
in their mentions of candidates with Capital FM, KISS FM, Easy FM 
Hope FM and Classic FM on average mentioning Odinga in 50% of their 
 
election coverage, and Kibaki in only 32%.  Again KBC English and 
Swahili services stood out as the only broadcasts in which Kibaki 
was mentioned significantly more frequently than Odinga (56% on 
average mentioned Kibaki vice 25% for Odinga).  Kibaki was also 
mentioned more frequently than Odinga by Citizen FM and Simba FM, 
but by smaller margins. 
 
Positive or Negative Coverage; Positioning of Coverage 
----------------------- ------------------------------ 
 
¶6.  An often hidden aspect of media coverage is the difference 
between positive and negative reporting on candidates.  In the first 
 
instance, the media cover the direct actions and statements of the 
candidates themselves.  In the latter they choose to air grievances 
 
and third person reports to the detriment of a candidate.   KBC 
general service and Swahili service provided much more positive 
coverage of Kibaki (64%/63%) than Odinga (40%/41%), and 
commensurately more negative coverage of Odinga (29%/26%) than 
Kibaki (only 6%). Citizen FM followed the same trend, with high 
positives and low negatives for Kibaki. Positive and negative 
coverage of the candidates by the other mainstream stations was 
relatively balanced. Nonetheless, the power of the incumbent was 
present as five of the six radio stations, including Capital FM, 
Easy FM, Hope FM, KBC, and Citizen FM, featured Kibaki as the lead 
story more frequently than other candidates.   KBC general service, 
 
in particular, featured Kibaki in all of its lead stories, to the 
exclusion of all other candidates.  Only Classic FM, and, to a 
lesser extent, KISS FM, more frequently featured stories on Odinga 
as the lead story. 
 
Vernacular Radio Stations: Catering to Tribal Audiences 
------------------ ---------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  Not surprisingly, the vernacular radio stations provided more 
coverage to the parties and candidates who were perceived to be more 
 
popular with their local audiences. Egessa, Kass, and Ramogi, which 
 
target pro-opposition audiences who speak Kisii, Kalenjin and Luo in 
 
western Kenya, carried more coverage on ODM  than on the other two 
parties.  Obversely, Inooro FM ("the only pure Kikuyu station") and 
 
Kameme FM, which broadcast in Kikuyu to Nairobi and Central and 
Eastern provinces, provide much more coverage of both PNU and Kibaki 
 
to the country's largest ethnic community and staunch supporters of 
 
President Kibaki. 
 
Pictures Tell the Story: Television Coverage 
--------------------- ----------------------- 
 
¶8. KTN and NTV provided fairly balanced coverage for all three 
candidates with only a few percentage points of air time separating 
 
the top two candidates (mid-30's for both Kibaki and Odinga) while 
giving significant coverage to the third candidate, Kalonzo Musyoka. 
 
Again, KBC and Citizen television were strongly partial to President 
 
Kibaki with coverage of two to one over Odinga in terms of air 
time. 
 
Positive or Negative Coverage and Positioning of Candidates 
------------------- --------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. The positioning of television coverage reflects similar 
priorities.  Both KBC and Citizen TV led broadcasts with news about 
 
PNU more than 55% of the time while the KTN lead story focused on 
 
NAIROBI 00004804  003 OF 004 
 
 
ODM 60% of the time and on Odinga 43% of the time.   The TV coverage 
 
was generally more straightforward because of limited air time for 
the news and did not lend itself to negative reports. 
 
Newspaper Coverage Most Balanced 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶10. In comparison with the electronic media, the print media 
provided the most balanced coverage of the three political parties 
and their presidential candidates, although preferences were still 
noted.  PNU received slightly more coverage than ODM and ODM-K in 
the Nation and Kenya Times.  On the other hand, ODM received 
slightly greater coverage than the other parties in the Standard, 
People's Daily, and Nairobi Star.  But the variances were only a few 
 
percentage points throughout the entire campaign season. 
 
Polls Have an Effect on Coverage if not Electorate 
------------------------ -------------------------- 
 
¶11.  There were four major polls conducted among the electorate 
throughout the campaign.  The polls were a significant part of the 
print media coverage.  Initially there was a huge gap between the 
incumbent and the aspirant.  From the launch of the ODM party and 
his candidacy, opposition leader Raila Odinga held a commanding 10- 
15% lead over President Kibaki in three of the four polls.  But as 
the campaigns wore on over the last 12 weeks, there was a 
significant tightening of the race to just a few points separating 
the two.  SPRR assessed that coverage of opinion polls by the media 
 
has improved and become more factual.  Previous mischaracterizations 
 
of the polls and their survey group details had distorted people's 
expectations for the final vote. It's hard to determine if this has 
 
had an impact on the electorate, but there was a noticeable shift in 
 
the coverage of The Standard, which had started out as at least a 
low-key supporter of Odinga, to hedge its bets with more coverage 
and editorials supporting the government candidate. 
 
Positive and Negative Print Media Coverage 
----------------- ------------------------- 
 
¶12.  The balance between positive and negative print media coverage 
 
was mixed.  The People's and the Nairobi Star's positive and 
negative comments about Kibaki and Odinga were evenly balanced, but 
 
the Nation was more positive on Kibaki and more negative on Odinga. 
 
The Standard was a bit more positive on Kibaki, and the Times was 
somewhat more negative on Odinga, but were otherwise evenly 
balanced.   This is always hard to measure since newspapers, which 
have more daily space to fill, are more likely to pick up and 
publish negative comments from rival parties.  It is interesting 
that despite this tendency, the balance remained reasonable in all 
the publications. 
 
Hate Speech in Nontraditional Media Sources, Vernacular Media 
----------------------- ------------------------------------- 
 
¶13. The SPRR report indicated that mainstream media had largely 
avoided hate speech and incitement.  However, other observers 
reported hate messages increased in both vernacular media and 
nontraditional media sources including SMS messages on mobile 
phones, leaflets, emails, blogs, and online chatrooms.  Blogs and 
e- 
mails have been turned into campaign platforms for and against 
presidential candidates.  Online fora became increasingly virulent, 
 
nasty, scandalous, including ethnic and sexual stereotypes, and even 
 
libelous.  Odinga has been the target of most of this messaging, 
although President Kibaki has received his share. A Kenyan National 
 
Commission On Human Rights (KNCHR) report cited instances of 
derogatory remarks by some PNU members against Odinga referring to 
the Luos' lack of male circumcision as "uncivilized."  They also 
compared Odinga to Idi Amin, Castro, Satan, Hugo Chavez, and 
Hitler. 
 
¶14.  Vernacular stations have also been accused of fanning tribal 
hatred, with some being used by politicians for their own campaigns. 
 
 Local FM stations also came under scathing attack from the Media 
Council of Kenya over their sloppy practices.  One vernacular 
station's inaccurate reports on the outcome of party nominations for 
 
NAIROBI 00004804  004 OF 004 
 
 
 
Parliamentary candidates were blamed for protests and the burning of 
 
houses in the troubled Kuresoi area of Molo District. 
 
Comment 
---------- 
 
¶15. Post interprets SPRR's detailed analysis of Kenyan mainstream 
media campaign coverage to show that, despite the blatant pro-Kibaki 
 
bias of KBC and Citizen, the media provided sufficiently balanced 
coverage of party/candidate activities to allow voters to make an 
informed choice.  However, coverage by some media outlets 
demonstrated a partisan bias.  Although hate messages appeared in 
vernacular media and in nontraditional media sources, the mainstream 
 
media generally refrained from such attacks.  Kenyan voters have 
easy access to diverse media voices, including ridicule and 
critiques of prominent politicians and the most senior government 
officials. 
 
Ranneberger