Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

AS an experienced media player and a bilingual Kenyan I have a feeling that the stern measures recently announced and warnings by the Ministry of Information and Communication of plans to clamp down on people hell bent of sending hate messages is timely.

Such measures should also be extended to the mushrooming vernacular FM Radio stations and producers of tribal musical songs.

It appeared that there has been a serious laxity on the part of the government after the year 2002 when these vernacular FM stations sprung up every where in this country. The message being sent out by some of these stations contained nothing, but pure war-mongering.

The concept and essence of the media under which these stations fall under, is to inform, entertain and educate. But this is not the case with our vernacular Radio Stations. The worse messages, full of seditious materials were recently heard over one FM station broadcasting in Kalenjin language, especially during the Mau Forest saga.

We Kenyans need to learn good lessons from our immediate neighboring state to the west {Uganda} where in September last year, the capital City, Kampala was set ablaze as a result of hate messages broadcasting in vernacular language.

The government of President Yoweri Museveni moved with speed and smashed the bloody rioting by Baganda youths, but only at a high cost in terms of human lives and property worth billions of shillings. The riot claimed close to 30 lives in Kampala and its environs, particularly in the Buganda Kingdom. The main cause was the liberalization of air waves.

Thereafter some vernacular FM Radio stations have remained closed and shut down on the order and instructions of the Communication and Broadcasting Council of Uganda rendering many artist and journalists jobless.

For many years even before independence and thereafter, Kenya has had a close scrutiny of materials meant for broadcasting, and even the publication of readable materials such as books, films and newspaper in a loose form of censorship. Some media houses have their own self-imposed censorship to ensure that reading members of the public have access to responsible publications worth their money.

There is an urgent need of a regulatory body, whose task is to scrutinize new musical songs, books, films and even imported reading materials such as periodicals and magazines from overseas so that they don’t corrupt the minds of our youths with obscene materials.

Some of TV programmes are wanting, and shouldn’t be shown to the families living with their grown up children living under one room.

Religious leaders are also to blame. I can remember that during the post-independence government, security agents were still scrutinizing musical songs, films and all sort of publications. Though this sounded dictatorial, it is necessary, as they say in English, that “Prevention is better than cure’.

If my memory can still serve well, I can vividly remember one Luo musician whose band had for many hears thrived by producing anti-Moi songs for public consumption. The man was too clever as he used only bombastic Luo proverbs. This clever musician succeeded in his mischief and he became an instant hero. He made a lot of money including handouts from anti-Moi elements within Luo-Nyanza. If this is what is called liberalization of the music industry, then it is wrong. Such activities must be subjected to curtailment for the sake of peace and tranquility in this country.

The control of provocative broadcasting materials such as those being put to the air by various vernacular stations must be scrutinized, and this should be part of the work for our National Security Intelligence Service {NSIS}. This is because their duty entails maintenance o

Our government must not wait to come to our rescue when the situation gets out of hands. People who peddle hate messages via mobile phone should be made to account for their words, and so those singing hatred music over FM radio station should be subjected to the same treatment as well s those airing hate radio programmes.Their action could be so detrimental to the spirit of reconciliation and cohesion. and therefore must be curtailed in time.

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leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

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The writer is a veteran Kenyan journalist regularly commenting on topical issues and operates in Western Kenya, Uganda and part of Tanzania.