As Kenya prepares to hold a General Election on 9th August 2022, focus is on the media on how it is going to handle the entire electoral process.
The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) which is an independent national institution responsible for setting of media standards, has organized massive media training for journalists to prepare them in covering the upcoming General Election.
“There will be massive training of journalists on election reporting. We started in the 47 counties,” said Victor Bwire, the Director for Media Training and Development at MCK.
Bwire speaking to KNA in his office added that the training will be guided by a handbook for journalists called Guidelines for election coverage which was signed by all media houses. The handbook contains chapters such as Gender sensitive reporting, Conflict sensitive reporting, Safety and protection of journalists among others.
Furthermore, the Media Council will set up media centers which will have laptops, internet and everything needed to help journalists file their stories.
“We will set up Media Centers. There will be a media center in Nairobi next to Bomas, another in Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu and Meru to offer journalists coming from the field a place where they can file their stories. These Media Centers will have laptops, internet and everything to assist journalists file their stories,” said the Director.
The Media Council will have a hotline number for all candidates so that a journalist can easily contact them for an interview.
“We will be running a hotline for contacts of all candidates so that if you are covering a story and want a candidate to interview you can easily find them,” he added.
By Mary Wangari and Manu Mumba
