The Role of the Kenyan Media in the "Unsatisfactory" Presidential Elections

Elections are important public undertaking. Since elections are crucial for democracy and stability of Africa, the media is ce11ainly one of main actors in the process. To what extent was the local media responsible or complicit by not changing aspects that were in public interest and deemed unfair in the 2013 Kenyan elections? What role did it play? The primary document considered in this thesis is the stakeholders meeting that fully reviewed the conduct of 2013 elections that involved all the media players at Safari Park Nairobi (Annual Media Summit). According to this Summit the media role in the 2013 election was summarized to three deliverables; voter education, propagation of information to the public and preaching peace messages. My research has employed the agenda setting theory to review 2013 elections media role. The agenda of peace might have forced media houses to edit and to weed out important debates such as the land reforms. And integrity issues. Could this have advantaged certain candidates? The ICC issue and the agenda of western imperialistic dominance made one camp to be portrayed as "savior" and their agenda of fighting imperialism was not vetted as the election falsely depended on this false issue and was accepted by media as a legitimate election issue and platform. This s agenda was promoted by the prayer rallies leading to election. The challenge of media ownership by the political class influences the election process. Lack of training, understanding, independence, tribalism, objectivity and bribery courtesy of media personality brought a twist to the same election. Kenyan media is generally young and as a result of being a profit venture, it was easy for them to be manipulated.