Hear stories of ordinary Kenyans impacting their world

That shows how crowded the mainstream media is. Contributors strive to be seen and acknowledged.  But for us in the digital world, we have infinite space to work, play and and worry about the dollar and forex which are the digital lingo.

This piece is not meant to discredit my colleagues in the legacy media. It is a critique on what went wrong and why time for "dodo" to reincarnate is ripe.

I realized that they follow a predictable news reading format:

Story 1 William Ruto

Story 2 Raila Odinga 

Story 3 Ruto, Raila

Story 4 Gachagua, Kalonzo, Matiang’i

Story 5 United Opposition 

Story 6 Kindiki

Story 7 Farouk

There is little regard for people-centred stories. Worse, the stories about politics are mainly about what us in the media call:he-said-she-said. This is where news lack depth of implications of what is reported. 

Given how all media command and demand attention from their audiences, they deserve value for their time and money to be informed not just a daily dose of priming politics which is the culprit in the country to start with.

Better yet, the mass media have power to set agenda of what kind of politics they want their journalists to cover. If there is a governor changing lives of rural communities to get farm inputs, access healthcare and build roads, the media should focus on that. In return, others will try to emulate him or her and in the end, more Kenyans will benefit from good governance.

But when the press, mainstream press, focus on politics which don't directly serve Kenyans but the political elite, they hopelessly cheer that narrative to continue. 

We need stories that inspire people to dream big. Stories that give hope to us. Not depression and controversy.

It's time for the legacy media to rethink their news priming to include ordinary Kenyans doing impactful efforts to build their communities. You have power to sanitize the political podium if you filter what you will carry as news and not what politicians say or want.