Our Lame Media

Human beings have a noted bias towards those of their kind and creed. This explains why Kenya's media has been the equivalent of a Nazi propaganda machine when it comes to Kenya's war on Somalia.  The media has been forever overlooking the serious crimes the army has been accused of committing in anyplace it has ever been deployed to; be it Mount Elgon, Mandera and now Somalia.

I'm not sure if its tribal. Tribal loyalty mainly consists of judging people solely by which side they are on and if the coverage is anything to go by, the media has been nothing short of cheer-leader for this effort.

It's not so much as being patriotic, it's that they've been consistently pursuing hatred and bigotry against Somalis for half a decade now.

The media eschews fairness and accountability, writes editorial urging the government to invade Somalia and casts a blind-eye on all the shortcomings of the military and the political class. It's like they've been paid to shill for all that is bad about this country.

Joseph Goebbels' (Hitler's propaganda minister) infamous propaganda principles included this

"Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the target of hatred."


Clearly some at NTV, KTN and Citizen have been reading this.

I hope this instills some cognitive dissonance in you and makes you seek information from unbiased sources. What we have in Kenya is a sham hate mongering machine that masquerades as MEDIA.

Let's all pray for peace and brotherly love.

The Kleptocracy That is Kenya

In a post I wrote about 11 months ago titled "Kenya: The African Mexico, its Stockholm Syndrome and What Somalis Can do to change their fortunes" I wrote this telling paragraph:

 Kenya is being over-run by drug cartels and narco-hitmen. Its unprofessional and untrained police officers are getting whacked Mafia style right in the heart of Nairobi while they are pre-occupied with explaining their bad fortunes on non existent 'terrorists' and burqa clad femme fatales.
The uptick in clashes between Police and drug traffickers is a sign that Kenya's long running drug problem is coming of age. We have now entered a new phase where drug barons feel powerful enough to take on the weak  and co-opted police force. Kenya's is fast morphing into a Mexico. Its now the equivalent of a Brazilian Favella. Traffickers have heavily embedded themselves deep into every level of society and  are virtually controlling law enforcement on this almost failed state.

That prognosis still holds true today and this is the actual war we should be fighting today.

Much of the hooblah surrounding Kenya's occupation of Southern Somalia has gone overboard now. Those of us opposed to the Somali war are opposing it on philosophical, humanitarian and economic grounds. We are not opposed to the war in Somalia because we are lily-livered weaklings. We understand declaring war is different from winning a war and Kenya has over the past 47 years shown that it is bad at fighting.

There is a temptation to take uncritical pride in your country when its defending you against enemies foreign even if that enemy is the imagination of a couple of brain-addled politicians.

The real war Kenya's security apparatus should be fighting is the one against narcotics. Our youths and children deserve to be protected from the evils of hard drugs. Our greatest enemy is the insidiousness of  drugs, the way it separates families and corrupts every lever of our society.

The video embedded below is a good indication.

KTN Insults Somali Culture, Again!

 It's a long, winding road from the crucible of some third rate college to a media house. But Saida Swaleh seems to have made the leap before she learnt anything. In some horseshit clip purporting to be a study of Somali culture, this brain-addled bimbo serves up  the usual racism that has become the trademark of KTN and The Standard Media Group in general. She dabbles in propagating stereotypes, spreading unfounded lies, insulting Islam and belittling Somali culture. For someone who claims to be a Muslim, this scumbag of a reporter is as Bipolar { the ending was somewhat conciliatory}as they come.

What I like the most about the video is the Gentleman in the Raila-esque cap who said:

 "Unaona hii nyumba. Zamani ni ya Mkikuyu, sasa ni ya Wariya"

Fucking deal with it bitch. We are successful because we work harder than any of you retarded morons. Gotta love it though. No one gets the adoons as cranky as we do.

Kenya; The African Mexico, Its Stockholm syndrome and what Somalis can do to change their fortunes

 Kenya is being over-run by drug cartels and narco-hitmen. Its unprofessional and untrained police officers are getting whacked Mafia style right in the heart of Nairobi while they are pre-occupied with explaining their bad fortunes on non existent 'terrorists' and burqa clad femme fatales.

The uptick in clashes between Police and drug traffickers is a sign that Kenya's long running drug problem is coming of age. We have now entered a new phase where drug barons feel powerful enough to take on the weak  and co-opted police force. Kenya's is fast morphing into a Mexico. Its now the equivalent of a Brazilian Favella. Traffickers have heavily embedded themselves deep into every level of society and  are virtually controlling law enforcement on this almost failed state.

Thursday's police killings in Eastleigh and Roysambu was a show of force by the God fathers. Expect a new wave of assassinations carried out by commando-style hitmen. On Thursday, the Police's, or shall we say kenya's ragtag militia's weaknesses were layed out bare for all to see. Instead of cordoning off the place, collecting evidence and re-assuring the public, they went on to allege that  terrorists were behind the heinous act. How could they know in such a short time? They heard it from someone, who heard from someone that saw something. This engagement in rumour mill village policing only heightened the media's hysteria and vilification of Somalis.

To decipher this inexplicable obsession with Somalis, you don't have to look any further than Kenya's two biggest Media houses that are both beholden to their Indian owners and benefactors. These Indians and their allies in Parliament are engaged in wanton destruction of the country's future by plundering its wealth, selling narcotics to its youth and corrupting every public office in the land.

If I may paraphrase Frank Rich in a different context, to understand Kenya's subservience to Indian businesses and their interests, all you have to do is consult Wikipedia's article on "Understanding Stockholm syndrome"." It explains that hostage takers are mostly successful in winning the loyalty of their subjects if they temper their brutality with a bogus show of kindness. Before you know it, the victim will start concentrating on his captor's 'good side' and develop psychological characteristics to please them. 'Dependency,lack of initiative and an inability to think, act or decide."
Kenya's people and media have been under Indian hegemony for so long now that they are fully under spell of Stockholm syndrome. Ever since Somali merchants started to break this foreign strangle hold on business and finance, pro status quo forces have been agitating for a return to the old days of Indian ownership of half Kenya's GDP.
Somalis have to counter this concerted racial attack through a number of means:
(i)   Bleed the media houses financially by suing them through legal apparatus. Forming a legal body that sues them for defamation every time they write a fake story will waste a huge chunk of their profits  on legal fees.
(ii) A blanket boycott on products that are advertised on KTN and NTV. No Somali businesses and affiliates should also advertise on any of these media houses either.
(iii) Buy the services of journalists and columnists. These guys are even more corrupt than the police. A small fee will go a long way in getting you a lot of positive coverage.
(iv) If the media is not giving you a fair shake, start your own media. Frame your own agenda and don't let others brand you names. Aljazeera's success in shaping how the world sees the middle east is prove that it can be done. There must be a few Somali millionaires with the resources and  the will to do so.
(v) Somalis should form lobby groups whose purpose is to forward Somali interests in the legislature. This corrupt Godforsaken place is ruled through the checkbook.
(vi) Somali businesses and companies should also be a force for common good. Giving a little back to the slums that surround Eastleigh and South C will go a long way in dispelling the myths that are propagated by KTN and NTV.
(vii) Our brain dead representatives in Parliament should make some noise about this continued racism on the floor of the house. This might instigate some media self flagellation and reduce the intensity of this sustained racial defamation. To solve this, bellicose reprisals will be necessary but they have to be grounded on pragmatism.
(viii) Finally, as youths we should  take to social media such as Facebook and twitter to defend our brethren. I'll summarize by quoting Edmund Burke, "All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."

The Double Standard in Issuing National IDs

Anatomy of a hateful media house

By Samir H.

I am running out of phrases to describe KTN and its blatant Islamophobia/Somaliphobia. Their interest in vilifying an increasingly visible and powerful minority group is no longer shrouded in vagueness. Their modus operandi seems to be: Make up a fake story of wrong doing by a non-existent individual, throw in the word Somali, mention something about 'illegals' and buying up 'ID Card', then gin up the story to a national controversy by  running it on their multiple media platforms. (KTN, The Standard, eastandard.net). An intensive negative coverage is fully spanning into a synergized multi-layered campaign for the delegitimization  of the Somali community.
Not a word of what they say about Somalis is true, but amazingly at one fell swoop, the Standard Media Group has successfully  knit up a tent of wingnuttery, where whacko haters feed off each others hate for Somalis in their very own bubble of bigotry.
The Story of a lone narcissist, pimping an 18th century communal policing practices will be forever imprinted in our memories. The sight of women, running for their freedom during Ramadhan will not be forgotten in NEP soon.

We might call them racist but recently I've become disinterested in this label. For a word that is so rich in suggestion, its starved of specificity. And KTN's war on Somali Kenyans, I've come to realize, is  specific and calculated.
Ask yourself what does KTN stand to gain from this?
Why was there a 15% rise in KTN's Stocks in a fortnight?
Where did this injection of liquidity come from?
What's KTN's relationship with the Indian community which owns 50+% of the entire Kenyan GDP?

I'm sure you are getting the drift of my story. In a country where free speech is for sale, an injection of liquidity into a notorious media house, will go a long way in running the kind of news that you want. In 2005, The Standard Media Group was raided by Kibaki's henchmen after they printed unflattering articles about the presidents wife. The understanding was as former Internal Security Minister infamously put it, "If you rattle a snake, expect to be bitten by it." This is the very same thing that Somali Kenyans need to do. Of course not raid the place in full commando regalia but bite KTN financially. This can be done in multiple ways:

1. Invest in their competitors, after all its not only Indians and Kiuks who have a monopoly on money.

2. Full blown declaration of hostility by Supkem and Jamia Mosque. For all its arrogance, KTN is not interested in getting into war with Muslims in Kenya. Given the diversity of Muslims in Kenya and their level of integration into the fabric of the society, the Standard Media Group knows this will gravely destroy their business.

3. Use our financial muscle and clout in buying influence within SMG itself. This is Kenya. Editors are available for a price and if The Easleigh Business Community cannot achieve this measly objective, I do not know what it can.

4. Engage in adversarial activism, online and offline. By legal means and otherwise.
Regarding the aforementioned activism, I would like to commend The Norther Lobby Group. This a group of young professional somali activist who have taken on SMG head on by launching a series of legal suits and complaints to the CCK and other regulatory bodies.
Equally a commendation is inorder for all the youths who took part in an online rebuttal of KTN on their facebook page. Their overwhelming pursuit of this irresponsible media corporation is already bearing fruit.

Its time for Somali Kenyans to form an influential alliance to take on this concerted attack on them. I'll be posting more articles on how we can improve our influence in the National Assembly  and the increasingly toxic media environment.

Spread the word. Share it on facebook, Uptweet it. Stand up to KTN!


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

KTN and the latest in Somaliphobia: brought to you by Mohammed Ali and his sidekick (D.Onsarigo) )

We all know that KTN is a vile propagandist machine that serves up hatred towards Somalis and Muslims in Kenya. Its the enemy of honesty and dignity and the biggest proponent of selfishness and class. In short KTN is the quintessence of unfairness, bigotry and marginalization. This Channel has a well known track record in peddling all sorts of lies and myths about Somalis. It has no respect for journalistic integrity and code.

This evil empire disguised as a media institution propagates the notion that Somalis are laundering billions of shillings in to the kenyan economy. That the inflation in our size is directly attributed to illegal aliens buying Kenyan Identity cards without providing any evidence to that effect. It has been the architect behind the bogus lie that the rise in Property prices in Nairobi and other cities is directly attributable to Somali money and influence.  And numerous other unfounded distortions that can be refuted by the click of a mouse.

After all of that, you would think this channel has sunk to a  journalistic low...boy, u are so wrong! These classless minions have now reached the epitome of lowness and are proudly swimming in the sewer of filth and dirt.

Recently Mohammed Ali and his sidekick have been busy" unearthing " a scheme by Somalis to take over Kenya by bringing all their brethren from Som to Kenya's borders. Now I have no problem with investigative journalism per se but somewhere in Kenya, a police officer is shooting a civilian or sticking a shiv into a witness , or someone is defrauding an orphan or a politician is arming his tribe for the coming Armageddon (remeber 2007) yet these vagabonds don't think that's worthy of investigation. They think ostracizing Somalis, who have been for decades victims of abuse and crimes by the state, will attract more eyeballs to their almost defunct station.

Mohammed Ali is a well known sociopath with delusions of grandeur. His sidekick is..well,  really just a sidekick. These two self aggrandizing lowlifes have been spreading fear in Nep and scaring the rest of the ignorant Kenyan masses.

As a muslim and a somali Kenyan I was troubled by the sight of aging Somali women  in the midst of their fast being chased on a thorny and an unforgiving landscape by two primates  pretending to be Police officers. Seriously, these two clowns have no jurisdiction under international or local law to question refugees or harass women especially in the midst of the holy month of Ramadan.

I called a bunch of my friends who are involved in the "mbuzi" industry (Zafex) and asked if they knew "Macho" the traitor or any of the people on the video. Luckily, we tracked down one of the women who were being chased that day. She is lives in Dagahley and wanted to come to Garissa for medical reasons. Neither the Kenyan government nor the UN would give her travel permits, so she did the only thing any of us would, under the same circumstances. She took matters into her own hands.

As Somali Kenyans, we have come a long way and climbed many mountains to gain our freedoms to just let them be trampled upon by corrupt officers or  less so a hostile mouthpiece of an adversarial TV station. As these two evil twins wrap up their rants and distortions, its upto the rest us peace loving northerners to stand up for our rights and those of the over exploited refugees.

I hate human traffickers as much as- if not more than- KTN. They mistreat people, plunder their wealth and subject them to subhuman treatment. This cannot be blamed solely on them. The Police and Immigration officers are responsible for this. The government is responsible for this too. There should be away for People fleeing the terrible situation in Somalia to find peace and live in dignity in Kenya.

We cannot remain blissful idiots who can rationalize anything.  Lets remember Marting Niemoller's  famous poem about Nazi Germany:

"

They came first for the Communists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo