Deputy President William Ruto during a consultative meeting with Kitui County leadership at his Karen residence, Nairobi County.
Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.
What you need to know:
- Rarely have I seen a public editor – anywhere in the world – complain so loudly for a presidential candidate.
- The esteemed Mr Mwaura hid behind unhinged speech by readers to direct hate and tirades at me in the pretext of hyperbole.
A couple of weeks ago, the Nation Media Group’s public editor, Peter Mwaura, wrote a doozy on me (‘Reader’s guide to judging Prof Mutua’s polemics against DP Ruto,Daily Nation, August, 6, 2021). Mr Mwaura cried that I had times without number taken Deputy President Ruto to the woodshed, and given him an undeserved shellacking in this column.
A week later, he defended himself from irate readers in the same column (‘Why columnists need to root their opinion in fact or strong evidence,’ Daily Nation, August 13, 2021). Some called him Mr Ruto’s puppet. That’s not my view, but methinks Mr Mwaura should definitely know better. Which begs the question – why would Mr Mwaura, the scribes’ ethics cop, carry so much water for the man from Sugoi?
No, Mr Mwaura, I don’t hate Mr Ruto. Let me dig deeper to peel your eyes.
First, Mr Mwaura seemed to conflate the media ecosystem inhabited by columnists with the straight-jacket that clothes reporters. The latter report on what they see, hear, or feel with as little commentary as possible. Reporters are conveyer belts for news, even when they are investigative journalists who do deep dives on subjects.
The former are opinion writers, which means columnists interpret the news and events from their point of view, or bias. Mr Mwaura seems to think that bias is per se a bad thing. No – bias is what makes me different from the bozo next to me. As Senior Counsel Paul Muite often says, if two of us are the same, then one of us is unnecessary.
Spoon-feeding public
Second, much of the ink in any newspaper is dedicated to passive spoon-feeding of the hapless public. Which means the reader opens her mouth and news is shovelled into the cavity willy-nilly. That’s not the purpose of the opinion pages. Op-ed writers are the closest thing to the intelligentsia in a newspaper. They think, digest, and spit out – don’t laugh – wisdom. Their job is erudition. They are reductionists of sorts. Theirs is a labour of the intellect. They tell you not what, how, or the where but rather the why – and the why not. They extrapolate and elucidate. Whereas the reporter stops at the finish line of the one-hundred-metre dash, the columnist keeps running asking why.
Third, it’s the mugumo (fig) tree that most interests the columnist. That’s because the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Columnists, unlike our sister and brother reporters, shouldn’t drill down on the mundane – unless it tells a larger story. Rapportage isn’t our forte. Our job as columnists isn’t to report history as it happened. That’s the job of reporters, who are wired differently.
I, and my fellow columnists, are constructed from different matter. We take the road not travelled. We prick and provoke. We entertain. We bamboozle. We educate and inform. We seduce with our lingua franca. We use the secret sauce. If we leave you emotionless, then we’ve fallen flat on our faces – and shame on us.
Fourth, Mr Mwaura committed grave errors by overlooking these pithy truisms. You’d think a grizzled journalist’s head like him would know differently. So, why did he decide to risk it all? Frankly, as they say, I don’t have the foggiest!
Incitement to violence
It’s not as though Mr Ruto has been a punching bag for marauding hordes of reporters and assorted columnists. Nyet – Mr Ruto has been receiving the most favourable press of anyone in the political arena. He’s treated with kid gloves by the press, given the many scandals that dog him. How, tell me, would a person who’s a heartbeat away from the presidency get so many passes on so many scandals? It’s mind-boggling and shocking.
Fifth, you would think we would want Mr Ruto raked through the coals for the simple reason that he wants to rule us all. We are entitled to expose every inch of his life to get to know him. Really know him. In that quest, columnists are allowed more latitude of thought, analysis, and rhetorical licence than your average reporter. They are even permitted to speculate as to the why, or why not. Speculation, as long as it’s connected to fact, is the gravamen – the grist of the mill – of good opinion writing.
Rarely have I seen a public editor – anywhere in the world – complain so loudly for a presidential candidate. Pour quoi Monsieur Mwaura? Why, why?
Lastly, the esteemed Mr Mwaura went overboard in his defence of Mr Ruto. He hid behind unhinged speech by readers to direct hate and tirades at me in the pretext of hyperbole. No, Mr Mwaura. To advocate I should be put in a beehive and rolled down the hills until I am dead, and if not, fed to crocodiles in Athi River, or drowned in my own Kitui Villa swimming pool, borders on incitement to violence. I am no shrinking violet, but that was beyond the pale.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School. He’s chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.
Source: Sunday Nation today.
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