[Imc-communication] supportive story about Kenya indymedia

[Jay]

Hi imc-communication,

I know most of what appears on imc-communication 
dwells on problems within the indymedia network, 
but here is something more positive.  The below 
article from In These Times about the Kenya IMC 
appeared on the the imc-africa list a couple days 
ago.  The Kenya IMC has some great work behind it 
and a ton of hard work ahead, but they do seem to 
have pulled something good together during the recent turbulent months.

Jay
p.s. I love the idea about getting IMC news tapes 
into the hands of Kenyan minibus drivers!


><http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3565/kenyas_indy_media/>http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3565/kenyas_indy_media/
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>Features > March 14, 2008
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>Kenya's Indy Media
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>By <http://www.inthesetimes.com/about/author/5168>Michelle Chen
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>Fred Orek, a cameraman and assistant editor with 
>the Kenyan video collective Slum-TV, works on a shoot in October 2007.
>Share 
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>While news reports across the world have 
>displayed images of chaos shaking Kenya, an 
>alternative media system driven by ordinary 
>Kenyans is emerging in the East African country 
>to help raise the voices of the seldom heard. 
>The violent aftermath of President Mwai Kibaki's 
>disputed election in December has detonated 
>Kenya's festering ethnic, land and power 
>struggles, leaving hundreds dead and displacing 
>hundreds of thousands. But it has also energized 
>the country's independent media-makers, many of 
>whom see their work as key to overcoming the crisis.
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>Fusing mass communication with political 
>organizing, the Kenya Independent Media Center 
>(IMC) has aired local activists' perspectives on 
>the violence and its root causes. Through its 
>growing network of independent reporters, IMC 
>Kenya aims to generate "information for action," 
>according to co-founder John Bwakali.
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>The organization also tries to lead by example 
>through its non-hierarchical structure as a 
>collective—a potential model of radical 
>self-empowerment in a society besieged by political disillusionment.
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>In an IMC audio piece, Jimani, a young activist 
>with the Warriors, a Nairobi-based self-help 
>group, reflects on the desperation that has 
>pushed many of Kenya's youth into violent clashes.
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>"Why has a youth gone out to fight, ready to 
>die?" he asks on a recording produced shortly 
>after the elections. "Is it freedom for those 
>who are oppressed in this world? Maybe you can 
>say so." But he continues: "As a [young] man is 
>ready to go out there and die because he wants 
>his voice to be heard, we need to give them that 
>chance. We need to hear what they have to say to us."
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>Some youth are amplifying their voices through a 
>video collective called Slum-TV, led by 
>Kenya-based media activists. By documenting 
>everyday struggles in Mathare—a densely 
>populated slum in the capital Nairobi—the 
>project enables young people to produce 
>homegrown media and, through local public 
>screenings, fosters community dialogue. 
>Following the outbreak of the post-election 
>violence, Slum-TV has focused on current 
>recovery efforts that bring together activists from different ethnic groups.
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>Slum-TV co-founder Sam Hopkins noted the 
>contrast with corporate media's coverage of 
>"tribal" violence. "The idea behind focusing on 
>characters who have crossed the ethnic divide is 
>really just to provide another version of what's 
>happening, to counteract the mainstream international media," he says.
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>As an ear to the ground in their communities, 
>grassroots media activists have sometimes been ahead of the news.
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>Patrick Shomba and fellow artists, who founded 
>the Ghetto Film Club media collective in 2006, 
>foreshadowed the approaching unrest in a 
>screenplay titled "The Ghetto President." The 
>film, created last year as a civic-education 
>project, explored issues of corruption, voting 
>rights, youth rights and ethnic conflict. After 
>scraping together volunteer help and borrowed 
>equipment, the group completed the film a few 
>days before the election and held a public 
>screening in a Nairobi slum. Their next film, 
>they hope, will be about reconciliation.
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>Since cities like Nairobi are ethnically 
>diverse, Shomba views street-level art as a way 
>to "maintain the peace here in the urban sector, 
>with a mix of culture and a mix of tribes."
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>Local youth lead the project as actors and 
>producers—a rare opportunity for them to 
>overcome marginalization. The group aims to 
>eventually turn media work into a sustainable 
>income source for young people wrestling with 
>poverty, crime and lack of schooling in their communities.
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>In the post-election turmoil, Shomba is also 
>working with Kenya's budding community radio 
>scene to air local news, as well as 
>anti-violence messages, on three small urban 
>stations, with an estimated reach of more than 2 million listeners.
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>"What our guys can do at the grassroots," he 
>says, "the mainstream media can't come and do."
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>Though still in its infancy, grassroots 
>reporting is gaining traction in Kenya. Since 
>2007, the Web-based Voices of Africa project, an 
>initiative of the Africa Interactive Media 
>Foundation, has delivered field reporting from 
>mobile-phone-based correspondents in Kenya. Its 
>coverage features video commentary from everyday 
>people on politics, underlying social problems 
>and concerns about the ongoing mediation talks.
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>Although Kenya's independent media-makers 
>generally do not face outright authoritarian 
>restraints, more insidious barriers can impinge on their work.
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>IMC Kenya reporter Oscar Odhiambo recently fled 
>Kenya temporarily for Tanzania, in part, he 
>says, because he felt that as an independent 
>journalist, he risked being targeted by violent 
>factions for speaking out. Meanwhile, he says, 
>Kenya's establishment press has failed to hold 
>powerful officials and business elites 
>accountable because it is hampered by corporate control.
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>"The media as an institution must be set free," 
>he says, "so that we as independent journalists 
>can also use that freedom to express an 
>autonomous view of what we believe is true."
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>Yet one of the most immediate challenges facing 
>independent media activists is simply logistics. 
>Reflecting the global "digital divide" between 
>North and South, Kenya's online infrastructure 
>is threadbare. Internet users make up less than 
>10 percent of Kenya's population, according to 
>international estimates; both media producers 
>and consumers typically lack consistent access. 
>In response, media-makers are repurposing 
>old-school technologies to reach new audiences.
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>While IMC Kenya runs a website, co-founder 
>Bwakali acknowledged that its digital material 
>is out of reach for most Kenyans. The key is to 
>capitalize on "good old traditional distribution 
>networks," he says—cassette tapes and compact 
>discs, distributed hand to hand. The group also 
>plans to work with mini-bus operators to air IMC 
>recordings on their daily routes.
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>For Slum-TV, just the shared experience of a 
>public audience has deep social resonance. "To 
>see the reaction of a crowd when we have a 
>screening is really incredible," says Hopkins. 
>In Mathare, where hundreds of thousands struggle 
>with poverty and political disenfranchisement, 
>"the potential to affect people's aspirations is huge."
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>Meanwhile, among the small community of wired 
>Kenyans, blogs channel information, outrage and hope.
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>In January, the blog Kenyan Pundit ran a 
>self-penned "obituary" by writer Simiyu Barasa. 
>"I know not my tribe," he wrote. "I have only 
>known myself as Kenyan, and others as fellow 
>Kenyans. In these times, belonging or not 
>belonging [to a tribe] means not being dead or 
>being seriously dead. What chances does a person like me have?"
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>While fostering political discussion, Kenya's 
>blogosphere has also taken a proactive role in 
>coping with the crisis. The Web-based mapping 
>project <http://Ushahidi.com>Ushahidi.com tracks 
>citizen-reported violent incidents, along with 
>local peace-building efforts, across the country.
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>Nairobi-based political cartoonist and blogger 
>Patrick Gathara distills pointed dissent into 
>scathing images and commentary. One of his 
>recently posted comics shows Kibaki playing the 
>fiddle and singing as the city behind him blazes in flames.
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>To help raise consciousness through art, Gathara 
>has worked with the Association of East African 
>Cartoonists (KATUNI) to launch a political 
>cartoon competition, which is themed around the 
>current conflicts and ideas for solutions.
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>"Involving the Kenyan people in the debate over 
>the future of their country and giving them 
>nonviolent avenues of expression," he says, "is 
>the way out of the current crisis."
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>As activists look to recast the country's 
>political landscape, IMC Kenya co-founder 
>Bwakali says free media is a critical tool for 
>opening dialogue: "You are telling each and 
>every person that your voice matters, that your 
>opinion can play a key role toward making a difference."
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>hannah sassaman
>prometheusradioproject
>
>building radio stations = awesome
><http://www.prometheusradio.org>http://www.prometheusradio.org
>215-727-9620 x 501
>267-970-4007
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