Why this has been a difficult year for Kenyans

Kenya starts to shut down after the Jamhuri Day celebrations and it a good time to reflect on the year that is ending. It has been a momentous year where people felt the impact in their pockets. The economy has not done well and the acting Treasury Cabinet Secretary has pretty much told us the country is in the red. The nation has had rains before but nothing like what we are experiencing currently. We are still smarting from the landslides in Pokot. Unfortunately the Pokot experience is replicated across the country with varying intensity. Scores have been swept away by floods while others have been buried in landslides. We are a nation obsessed with exam results. The excitement over the results of primary school exams and complaints regarding assignment of schools is fading away as we wait for the release of secondary school exams and the placement of candidates in courses at the university. As happens periodically, the management of Mau Forest and the devastation that the water tower is facing was a big story this year. Some sought to make political capital out of it and with the year ending it is still hard to make sense of the direction that saving the forest and the environment is headed. We are a hugely political country the subject that occupies our political class for the better part of their time. Names have been dished around to groupings whether it is Kieleweke, Tanga Tanga, Warembo of this and that among others. This is probably going nowhere and it is safe to guess that politicians are not going to take a break. We are likely to have just more of the same. This is the year that has given us the BBI report. But we are not any wiser where the debate is headed. Some want it to head to Parliament while others want a referendum. One can bet that BBI will be the first political topic of the new year. Even this late in the year there are still stories to come apart from BBI and how the political class is going to align itself. Those formations are already beginning to emerge. There are continuing challenges in the arena of media. If there is one set of professionals that is not sitting easy, then it is journalists. Technology continues to disrupt what they are doing and it is likely that when the best minds in the subject meet at the World Media Economics and Management Conference in Rome in May next year they will come up with the same conclusion that the best formula for halting the tide in media decline is yet to be found. But there are flashes of success everywhere, whether one is exploring the centrally controlled model that has been applied by the Chinese or the free market approach that most of the successful media in the west have employed. However, here at home it has not been easy as many journalists have lost their jobs as a consequence of restructuring. Reflecting on the year as a whole may be that there is not so much to write home about. While gloom appeared on almost every side at least BBI should be viewed as one of the positive developments if it provides a formula that brings the country together. If realised, political unity could provide a flashlight to build on going forward. This is a board on which to pin our next year’s dream. Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi had a point when he intoned that what ails the country is the economy. If only all the levers of the country would press on the economy in the coming year then may be there are hopeful days ahead. — The writer is the dean, School of Communication, Daystar University

Why this has been a difficult year for Kenyans

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