Cartoonists take on freedom and security

Cartoons. Those caricatures with few words ordinarily seen as source of harmless fun. Yet these visual art pieces also convey more serious messages to an adult audience in our daily newspapers. They put current political, economic and social events of a country into perspective through satire.

But not everybody is a fan of cartoons, especially the editorial ones. Most politicians take offence when they are portrayed comically for who they are. Government officials best known for inefficiency and thievery would rather they are not caricatured and an attempt to censure cartoonists, for what they are, is ever present.

A two-week cartoon exhibition that ended last Thursday dubbed, ‘Freedom and Security: Can We Have Both?’ saw the illustrators depict the plight of media freedom in the struggle against terrorism.

The cartoons on show captured the current state of affairs where the State is trying to control how the media covers terror so that it is not accused of failure to protect citizens and other asinine reasons.

A cartoonist called Ozone mocked the presence of security officers in Lamu, Mandera and Garissa by yet there’s lack of safety by showing a scarecrow donning a KDF uniform holding a gun.

This exhibition came two weeks after the latest terror attack that occurred at Garissa University College last month and past gruesome attacks in Mpeketoni and Mandera.

Political cartoonist Victor Ndula had one of his works showing what happens when the state tries to control media. The cartoon piece shows two newspaper vendors on the road selling publications that have several holes symbolising the death of information when the government controls the fourth estate.

“Cartoons are mainly symbolic. I use popular symbols that can be understood by the public to pass a message. We usually employ satire, wit and humour in our work. The most important thing here is to start conversations among people especially on matters of security and work towards a solution,” says Victor.

But not all works advocated free press. Others chastised journalists for failing to do their work ethically and not staying true to the profession.

Other issues addressed included corruption at Government offices and the tendencies by State officials to turn a blind eye to suffering Kenyans.

The exhibition continues up to mid this month with conversations from cartoonists from Kenya, Canada, Turkey, Sweden, Togo, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Australia and Ghana. The function was organised by creators of the XYZ Show of the Buni Media and the Alliance Francaise.