William Ruto, the Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate, has in the recent past raised a fundamental question - the question of balanced media coverage. The crux of his complaint is the apparent asymmetric coverage of presidential campaigns by a section of the media - television, newspaper and radio.
Ruto averred that pari passu, the press has not done justice to his presidential campaigns compared to his competitors. He raised his concern with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati, questioning the media's attempt to distort or undermine his campaign messaging while amplifying those of his political opponents.
This concern, coming from a presidential candidate, cannot be swept under the rag or be treated as another campaign kvetch. It is a legitimate concern that actors in the media industry should address with a view of engendering at least some modicum of fair play in the electoral campaign coverage in the intervening period.
The legendary sobriquet the Fourth Estate in reference to the press is clearly a pointer of the fundamental role and the puissant influence by the press in the society. Edmund Burke, a British statesman delineated three realms of power noting that the press was a redoubtable force and had arrogated itself a socio-political province beyond the traditional estates of influence and power namely, the clergy, the nobility, and the commons.
The short and long of it, is that the media had willy-nilly usurped a critical space - interpreted as a sine qua non in a democracy. As such the media should be seen as integral to liberal political ecosystem.
As we approach this momentous electoral cycle, the Kenyan media should not eviscerate itself of the core journalism doctrine of fairness and balance in parsing and conveyance of information for public consumption. The underpinning principle is that the media does not exist in a vacuum. It is first and foremost a corporate citizen deeply rooted in the fabric of the society and as such has ethico-moral and civic duty to exercise its act freely, fairly and independently. In fact the utility of the media should eternally be predicated on the principle of public good as its raison d'etre.
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Whereas in other jurisdictions such as the United States and the United Kingdom, the media can be ideologically predisposed - pitting the left and the right, the same cannot be superimposed to the Kenyan situation, as has been suggested for instance by my friend Makau Mutua who is presently Raila Ondinga's presidential campaign spokesman. In a recent commentary in one of the local dailies Prof Mutua entreated the mainstream media to take partisan position in this election - particularly with regard to presidential candidates.
Contextually and by inference it cannot be gainsaid that he may have been priming the local media to profligately cover his presidential candidate. His pleas may have hit the bulls' eye. But caution is key here: A polarising media bodes ill in ethnically fragmented and formative democracies and Kenya is not an exception.
It must be underscored that for Kenya to craft a solid environment for free, fair and credible elections, the media perforce should be at the vanguard. In concert with other actors, the media must instrumentalise its space by setting or promoting electoral agenda as well as fostering public confidence in the whole process. Indeed, the survival of a country and its democratic values would be at risk if the press becomes either complacent, pusillanimous, or victim of conspiratorial shenanigans.
It is fundamentally unethical therefore for a section of the media to extend dizzying and superfluously favourable reportage to one presidential candidate while evidently smothering the campaign message of his principal competitor.
Ruto's candidacy first and foremost is a function of the Kenyan constitution and is founded on pebbles of dreams of millions of Kenyans who wish to entrust him with Kenya's leadership in this election. This is reason enough for the press to accord him a fair play.
Following this consistency of omission or commission on the part of the media, it is instructive to note that, Ruto had threatened he would not honour the invitation for presidential debate, expected to take place today.
Although the presidential debate organisers have dispelled these concerns it still remains a plausibly sticky issue deserving of assurances by the mainstream media to Ruto and Kenya Kwanza.
Mr Magutt teaches Politics and International Studies at Kenyatta University. jmagoott@yahoo.com