Whatever the job description of the
Government Spokesman, all that the
holder of the office has done in
almost 10 years in office is shoot his
mouth and put his foot in it at the
same time.
I know he is not paid to keep quiet,
but silence sometimes does say a
lot. And that is what he should have
done last Thursday.
Unfortunately, the Government
Spokesman decided (one wonders
why) to belittle everyone’s
intelligence through disinformation.
He said the government was aware
of the famine situation but has no
capacity to distribute food aid to
those who need it.
That journalists report untruths
about scarcity of food from the
comfort of Nairobi as they eat
burgers in up-market restaurants,
staring into their laptops.
Was he saying the media pictures
were posed by models, and the
footage acted?
Apparently, the Government
Spokesman was incensed by media
reports that Kenyans were starving
and some have even died. His
reaction: Disinform by giving
inaccurate information with the
intention of turning genuine
information useless. This is also
called black propaganda. The act of
deception and false statements to
convince someone of untruth.
The reality
The Government Spokesman can sit
and argue until the rains fall in
Turkana, but the reality is that
Turkanas have been facing
starvation since February as
reported by the media and later in
May another serious alert was
sounded about Kenyans ravaged by
hunger in many other regions.
Two months later, he wants to
shoot the messenger, yet he has
not even verified the earlier
message, let alone act on it by his
own admission.
And he wonders why people call
him names? Because, Bwana
Msemaji wa Serikali, all you seem to
do is deny, discredit, recant,
repudiate and talk down to others.
What you did last Thursday at your
weekly media briefing was to give a
non-denial denial to the media
reports on the famine in the
country. You created a false
impression of media reports.
A non-denial denial is a statement
that seems direct, clear cut and
unambiguous at first hearing, but
when carefully parsed is revealed
not to be a denial at all, and is thus
not untruthful.
Government Spokesman, all that the
holder of the office has done in
almost 10 years in office is shoot his
mouth and put his foot in it at the
same time.
I know he is not paid to keep quiet,
but silence sometimes does say a
lot. And that is what he should have
done last Thursday.
Unfortunately, the Government
Spokesman decided (one wonders
why) to belittle everyone’s
intelligence through disinformation.
He said the government was aware
of the famine situation but has no
capacity to distribute food aid to
those who need it.
That journalists report untruths
about scarcity of food from the
comfort of Nairobi as they eat
burgers in up-market restaurants,
staring into their laptops.
Was he saying the media pictures
were posed by models, and the
footage acted?
Apparently, the Government
Spokesman was incensed by media
reports that Kenyans were starving
and some have even died. His
reaction: Disinform by giving
inaccurate information with the
intention of turning genuine
information useless. This is also
called black propaganda. The act of
deception and false statements to
convince someone of untruth.
The reality
The Government Spokesman can sit
and argue until the rains fall in
Turkana, but the reality is that
Turkanas have been facing
starvation since February as
reported by the media and later in
May another serious alert was
sounded about Kenyans ravaged by
hunger in many other regions.
Two months later, he wants to
shoot the messenger, yet he has
not even verified the earlier
message, let alone act on it by his
own admission.
And he wonders why people call
him names? Because, Bwana
Msemaji wa Serikali, all you seem to
do is deny, discredit, recant,
repudiate and talk down to others.
What you did last Thursday at your
weekly media briefing was to give a
non-denial denial to the media
reports on the famine in the
country. You created a false
impression of media reports.
A non-denial denial is a statement
that seems direct, clear cut and
unambiguous at first hearing, but
when carefully parsed is revealed
not to be a denial at all, and is thus
not untruthful.
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