Why Kenyans should stand with the media amid TV shutdown.

The media shutdown has elicited passionate debates on the state of media freedom in Kenya. True to form, comments on social media reveal deep rooted political and ethnic mis-informed perspectives on the matter. Pro-government commentators support the shut-down citing the shortcomings of the press as justification and they are overly critical of NTV, KTN and Citizen TV, accusing them of anti-government bias and allegedly working with the opposition to undermine the government and the ruling party. Anti-government and pro-opposition commentators cite the government’s impunity and see a political hand in the matter, dismissing all kinds of accusations against the media. And there are those feigning indifference and swaying between support and condemnation. The most eminent comment being; “They fed the ogre, now the ogre is devouring them”.

 

The problem with this debate is that majority miss the point which is “press freedom”. Freedom of the press denotes an atmosphere where media professionals can publish facts without any fear or any threat. For this group of people, there is a set of professional journalistic codes and ethics to adhere to but the fundamental question is often whether the publication is factual. Professional training and established codes outside the confines of any group of interest, private or national, instinctively provide answers to challenging environments not limited by space and time. In the face of intimidation, undue influence and sabotage, my media law and ethics professor, Joe Kadhi, a media guru who has tutored and inspired many in the field often said “Publish and be damned”. This is the code that we live by. 

However, this does not mean that press freedom is absolute. The Media has a responsibility to inform, educate and entertain in a constructive and unbiased manner in the public interest. The press has to know its responsibilities. It should conform to national values, national objectives as expressed by the people and not just the government, political class, businesses or any other power groups. The reality is that our press is majorly private owned and profit driven and this sometimes comes in the way of public interest especially when economic interests are at stake. Citizens should demand accountability from the press, just as they do from the government. Press freedom has sometimes been abused through distortion of facts, blackmail, character assassination and cheap sensationalism. 

There is no doubt that the press has the power to help or harm. The demerits of a free press far outweigh the merits of a gagged press. Jawaharlal Nehru, nationalist and the first prime minister of India stated that “I would rather have a free press, with all the dangers that may result from a wrong use of that freedom, than a strangulated press”. Governments and politicians across the entire globe, in both democracies and autocracies have been at loggerheads with the press. 

State power and individual wealth breeds impunity in unequal societies and it is the responsibility of the media to act fearlessly and be the pillar of strength for the poor and weak in society. Gagging the press is usually associated with declining democratic freedoms and often accompanied by injustices. It is impossible to fight corruption, impunity, injustices and even poverty without the free flow of information. 

Most states would like to control and manipulate the press in favour of incumbent governments. Government controlled media are often manipulative and less responsive to citizen needs and hence the low credibility in state owned media globally. It is therefore important for citizens to understand that it is in their own interest to stand by the press, despite their shortcomings and demand accountability and responsibility, rather than have a press that plays to the tune of politicians in and out of government.  

Shutting down media stations without due process is neither in the public interest nor in the government’s interest. Self-restraint and respect for the constitution is necessary to facilitate the growth of a responsible press and a more democratic society. Condemnation and support based on political, ethnic and ideological perspectives doesn’t help either. Media survival depends on the state that governs and regulates them, the firms that advertise through them and the audiences they serve. Their ultimate task is to balance these different interests upon which their survival depends. It is never an easy task and therefore the press often relies on accepted principles, values and legal provisions to guide their work. Their performance should therefore be judged on these provisions.

The freedom of the press should not be solely guaranteed by provisions of the law, but together with the culture of accepted norms of society in an objective manner. Objectivity is based on the interests of all the parties involved and is guided by fundamental principles in the profession. Edward Herman defined “Objectivity” as presenting both sides of the story, digging out facts without political or ideological constraints and presenting those fairly and impartially. Newsworthiness must be on the basis of consistently applied news values, unaffected by a political agenda, ideological leaning and profitability considerations.  

There are several ways to media accountability that function effectively and should be enhanced and facilitated. The media should re look its self-regulatory mechanisms to ensure that it is effective and responsive to the concerns of its stakeholders through agreed on ethical codes, the media council, and letters to the editor columns among others. Where there are competing ideas and ideologies and elusive facts, the marketplace of ideas should be the guiding principle. The principle holds that the truth will emerge from the competition of ideas in a free and transparent public discourse where facts are separated from fiction based on the merits and demerits, superiority and inferiority as well as acceptance among the population. And just as free markets operate, the market place of ideas is governed by laws against defamation, libel and slander and litigation is a more democratic way to address media concerns.

A REVIEW OF THE REALIST QUANDARY

Realism as a paradigm can be described as a theoretical and methodological framework aimed at describing and possibly predicting events in international relations. However, the development and application of international political theory continues to be one of the major challenges faced by students of International relations (Waltz 1990).

Kenneth Waltz (1990) in his “Realist thought and neorealist theory” attempts to clarify some problems in the framing and application of International political theory. Through examining difficulties faced by economists and early 20^th century political scientists, and establishing that the former eventually made a breakthrough by inventing concepts that permitted economic phenomena to be seen as distinct processes thus allowing economy to be viewed separately from social and political life. The argument is that “theory only becomes possible only if various objects and processes, movements and events, acts and interactions are viewed as forming a domain that can be studied in its own right”. This is what Raymond Aron and Morgenthau believed to be impossible for students of international politics to accomplish.

Aron (cited in Waltz 1990) came up with a list of difficulties faced by international politics that include; innumerable factors that affect the international system and the lack of distinction between those that are internal and those that are external, the fact that states act as the principal international actors cannot be endowed with a single aim among others, the lack of distinction between dependent and independent variables and lack of accounting identities and no possibility of prediction and manipulation with identified means leading to specific goals.

However, it is important to note that Aron’s arguments are not independent but based on the success of economic physiocrats whose field of study is not necessarily the same as international politics. As much as he identified the differences between economics and international politics, he failed to link their differences and the consequences of their differences to theory construction. Just because economy succeeded in this manner, does not mean international political theory cannot succeed in another manner from a different perspective with different philosophical underpinnings.

Nevertheless, the prospects of development and application of International political theory remain dim in the wake of competing world views and relative weaknesses levelled on each prospective theory. For instance, Morgenthau on his part attempted to deal with the situation by seeking to derive explanatory principles from facts. To help him, he forged concepts like ‘national interest’ and ‘interest defined as power’. Just like Child, Morgenthau has been criticised for failing to take the next important step to develop the concept into a recognizable theory. Without a concept of the whole, Morgenthau could only deal with the parts and according to Waltz (1990); he confused the problem of explaining foreign policy with the problem of developing a theory of international politics. Waltz believes that the theoretical ambition of Morgenthau was hindered by his belief that the international political domain cannot be marked off from others for the purpose of constructing theory. He states that in fact, to isolate a realm is a precondition to developing a theory that will explain what goes on within it. This suggests that it is possible to develop a theory from a neorealist perspective because of the possibility of marking off international politics by looking at the nature of the international structure as a whole (Waltz 1990).

One of the recurrent problems in international politics is concerned with the level of analysis. The debate is whether analysts should begin their analysis with the study of the international system as a field of forces or whether to look at it as a rule governed order internalised by the nation-states. The idea that the international system can be thought of as a system with a precisely defined structure is neo-realism’s major point of departure from traditional realism, Neorealist’s argue that international politics can be understood only if the effects of the structure are added to traditional realism’s unit level explanations. While Waltz acknowledges that interaction between causes at the unit level with those at the level of structure, he only states that an explanation of the unit level alone is bound to be misleading (Waltz 2000).What he fails to acknowledge is the reverse. That due to the interaction of the units of analyses, an explanation at the structure level alone can possibly mislead as well. This lack of acknowledgment can be explained by his neo-realistic leanings. However, Waltz logic of neorealism does not completely capture the main features of the international political system since the system itself cannot be precisely defined and therefore cannot be isolated or marked off from others for the purpose of theory making.

The international system influences the behaviour of states. It builds on realism in that the structure in which states exists is anarchical with no formal authority because of the sovereign rights of each state and that states have to rely on their own power to safeguard their interests. The argument is that since the natural tendency of states is to increase their power, the preservation of a decentralized system is through balance of power (Mearsheimer 1994/5).  This argument suggests that structural realism is the best model for predicting state behaviour. Indeed changes have taken place in the international system, yet the system remains what it was perceived to be by realists. For instance; economic interdependence only changed the interest of the key states that can shift the balance of power and act as a special form of deterrence (Waltz 2000).

Critics may argue that despite the fact that democracy does not change the system, it reduces conflict and despite the fact that international institutions don’t change the system, they change behaviour. Nevertheless, these shortcomings do not change the fact that the system is unchanged. As much these arguments and available evidence are inclined in favour of Waltz, it is not foolhardy to contemplate that the new structures within the system are part of a long term process that is slowly and surely changing the system.

The debate eventually comes down to what theoretical lens one views the subject and the belief that a certain approach can better explain what happens in the world. As clearly explained by Waltz, theory is a picture of the world that one is concerned with but it’s not the whole world and therefore no single approach can explain everything. Just as it is in any area of scholarly inquiry, there are several ways in which phenomena under study may be sorted and arranged for the purposes of systematic analysis. The observer may choose to focus upon the whole system or the constitutive components of the system. Whether or not the observer decides to choose the whole or the constitutive units is a matter of methodological or conceptual convenience often based on their theoretical leanings (Liska 1957). This however, does not rule out cooperation and consensus in the quest to develop international political theory. For instance, it has been suggested that there should not be an almost completely negative "realist" theory of the world that causes states to treat each other as enemies because they live in fear of one another, instead, a middle ground should be met in order to bring in institutions to govern over states and their behaviours towards one another (Mersheimer 1994/5). It is therefore necessary for the scholarly community to work with different levels of analysis to answer different questions. As one is confronted with the system, its sub-systems, one may choose which direction to take in terms of level of analysis, however, this should not be merely a function of whim, habit or familiarity. The scholar should be prepared to evaluate the relative conceptual and methodological utility of the various alternatives and the implications of the final level of analysis selected (Singer 1961).

The Rise Of "Made In Ethiopia" — With The Backing Of Beijing

The Rise Of "Made In Ethiopia" — With The Backing Of Beijing: HAWASSA — Peter Wan is smiling from ear to ear. The 50-year-old walks past huge warehouses, where dozens of Ethiopians a...

“In some ways, Ethiopia can represent a Trojan horse for Chinese firms who want to use the country as a re-exportation hub towards more promising markets,” says Xavier Aurégan, an independent researcher for the French Institute of Geopolitics.

Another major advantage for Ethiopia is the country’s young, cheap and abundant labor force. “Labor cost here is the lowest in the world,” says Yang Nan — just like China 30 years ago. But nowadays the average wage in China is more than $800 a month, too much to remain the world’s factory. China's future therefore depends on Ethiopia, where there is no minimum wage."

Except from the article.

A glimpse of China’s policies towards Africa

China’s policies towards Africa

China’s engagement with Africa continues to soar and light the way based on sound policies meant to sustain the good relationship and drive Africa’s development agenda. Through close contact and collaboration through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), China has devised policies that are responsive to Africa’s needs and in consensus with the African leadership. China has continually pledged to work with African countries to promote the all-round development of China-Africa friendly cooperation and strong ties and make an exemplary relationship centered on mutually beneficial cooperation. 

On December 4 and 5 2015, during the FOCAC Summit, Chinese president Xi Jinping in Johannesburg asserted that "Chinese and Africans will remain good friends, partners and brothers forever," and stressed that China will continue to uphold the guidelines of its Africa policy, sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith  and a balanced approach to common principles and interests.

 During the forum, China went above and beyond its tradition of doubling financing commitment to Africa at each FOCAC meeting and tripled it this time. China pledged to invest a total of $60 billion. China had consistently doubled its financing pledges toward Africa at previous FOCAC meetings from $5 billion in 2006, to $10 billion in 2009, and to $20 billion in 2012. 

China has consistently implemented its pledges since the establishment of the Forum. At the summit, Xi proposed 10 overarching plans for Sino-Africa cooperation, covering almost all aspects of their economic ties: industry, agriculture, infrastructure, environment, trade facilitation, poverty alleviation, and public health. 

The overall direction fits in the readjustment of China’s Africa policy since the inauguration of President Xi. “Industrial capacity cooperation” and “strategic complementarity” have become the two keywords for China’s economic aspiration in Africa. Under China’s own economic restructuring and Africa’s aspiration for industrialization, modernization, and urbanization, China is keen on shifting its labour-intensive industries to Africa. Such industrial capacity cooperation is to be complemented by the export of China’s excess capacity to support African infrastructure projects and capacity building through technical assistance, vocational training, and fellowship programs. 

China intends to implement 10 cooperation plans with Africa in the next three years which are aimed at addressing three issues holding back Africa's development, namely inadequate infrastructure, lack of professional and skilled personnel and funding shortage. The 10 cooperation plans include a China-Africa cooperative plan for agricultural modernization, noting that China is to provide 1 billion yuan (US$156 million) of emergent food aid to the African countries hit by El Nino, increase its assistance to Africa to launch hundreds of projects on poverty alleviation named "Happy Life" and relevant plans focusing on women and children,  exemption of  debts arising from the outstanding intergovernmental interest free loans due by the end of 2015 owed by relevant least developed countries in Africa, providing training and educational opportunities to Africa to help solve the continent's talent shortage, implementing a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership,  pooling US$5 billion this year in its equity investment fund for investment in Africa. These plans aim at addressing three bottleneck issues holding back Africa's development, namely inadequate infrastructure, lack of professional and skilled personnel and a funding shortage. 

These are excepts from the speeches and statements from the Chinese president and Chinese diplomats during and after the FOCAC summit in Johannesburg South Africa.

Chinese Loans offer the best alternative for Kenya

There’s a raging debate on whether the loans Kenya has secured from China are good for us and whether they are comparatively better than loans secured from the West. On the part of the anti-Chinese loans to Kenya part of the divide, the stratagem seems to be a largely fallacious attempt to paint a good image of lenders from the West.

The propensity to the West has conveniently led to the ignorance of Kenya’s debt history, which was predominantly from the West. History proves that loans from the Bretton Woods Institutions were expensive, ineffective and a tool of political manipulation while facts in the recent past suggest that loans from China; and specifically from the Exim Bank of China are cheaper due to the amicable policies towards Africa by the Chinese government.

Besides creating dependence, most of the Bretton Woods loans are too low to enable any meaningful progress. Many are also mainly destined to non-productive ventures such as democratic governance, policy reforms or humanitarian aid. Indeed, critics have coined the term “humanitarian alibi” to describe how humanitarian assistance is used by Europe and America to appear that they have been doing something when, in actual fact, they have not brought about any meaningful change in economically promising countries like Kenya.

In the book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins exposes how deceptive foreign development assistance from the West has been. He chronicles how the West deploys experts to convince developing countries to accept loans that do not contribute to development and which they have no capacity to pay. Consequently, such countries are forced to default which places them at the mercy of the lenders. This could be one of the reasons why Kenya had not implemented any large infrastructure project before going East.

The Chinese approach is seen a “win-win principle” in that aid is given only if it contributes to China’s own national interests as well as those of the recipient country. In addition, we cannot begrudge the Chinese for wanting to benefit from the loans they give us. What we need to do is to ensure that we negotiate with them so that they can subcontract our own engineering firms and local road contractors even as we build our own capacity to international standards.

Unlike lenders from the West, the Chinese government has explicitly stated in policy that it does not interfere with the internal affairs of the recipient countries and that it “fully respects their right (of such countries) to independently choose their own paths and models of development.” We need to remember the havoc caused to our economic mainstays after we agreed to adhere to the structural adjustment programmes imposed by the IMF and the World Bank in late 1980s. This must be a constant reminder of Kenya’s debt history and the best alternative offered by the Chinese.

Our debt-GDP ratio is not as bad as we are persuaded to believe. We are at par with our peers in the continent and there’s nothing wrong in surpassing prudential loan limits in the short run; the real danger is when it is breached on a long-term basis. Indeed, even the IMF acknowledges that it is practically difficult to pin-point what constitutes a prudent amount of public debt.

A high Debt-GDP ratio is not necessarily a sign of bad economic management Anis Chowdhury and Iyanatul Islam in Is there an optimal debt-to-GDP ratio?; rubbish the claim that high public debt causes lower growth saying that this is “not grounded in robust empirical evidence.” What is important is to ensure the loans go to fund productive ventures. There’s little doubt, even amongst the naysayers that the development of large infrastructure projects is likely to promote more economic growth.

It is therefore prudent to bear in mind that there are no quick fixes to reduction in debt ratio. Indeed, IMF reports show that bringing debt-GDP ratios to sustainable levels requires unprecedented and long-term measures. It therefore means that for Kenya to reduce its debt burden, then it needs to expand economic growth –which is what the implementation of large infrastructure projects are meant to achieve. 

This Article has also been published on the following platforms

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/04/19/china-loans-our-best-bet_c1332003

http://www.mediamaxnetwork.co.ke/people-daily/214266/why-chinese-loans-offer-best-alternative-for-kenya/

http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/eblog/2016/04/15/chinese-loans-offer-best-alternative-kenya/

China’s role in South-South cooperation

China is the fastest growing economy in the world by all means at the moment. One positive thing about the Chinese people is the understanding that at one particular point in history, they were not doing well. They experienced challenges and now that they are in a position to help other move up the ladder, they are willing to do it in order to impact positively on the lives of many other people across continents.

While addressing a high level roundtable on South-South Cooperation at UN headquarters in New York, President Xi Jinping announced China’s participation in a massive 600 new projects that are geared to helping the developing countries on trade and poverty reduction. It is in this discussion the Chinese president took the opportunity to stress the commitment of his nation to South-South cooperation. He said that China remained as committed as ever to this cooperation.

In a well-orchestrated plan spread out over a period of five years, in its effort to reduce poverty, China would initiate 100 new projects that would tackle this cancer. To promote agriculture China would initiate 100 projects. A further 100 projects will be established to promote trade. China is committed to preservation and conservation of the environment in order to tackle the glaring problems occasioned by climatic change. As such another 100 projects dealing with ecological preservation and climatic change will be set up. On health development, China will initiate projects that will see construction and development of 100 new hospitals and clinics. To promote education and intellectual development, 100 schools and vocational training centers will also be set up.

To show its commitment to South –South Cooperation, China will also set up a South –South Cooperation and Development Academy to aid in training half a million technical personnel from developing countries. In addition to this, it will offer $2 million in assistance to World Health Organization.

Xi added that there will be more deliberate communication and exchanges with developed countries and a greater participation of businesses and the private sector to build multi-tiered partnerships and help in creating a community of shared interests among various stakeholders.

The President emphasized on the need of the South-South Cooperation to deliver practical results and take the approach of result orientation rather than just empty talk. He pointed out that projects should yield tangible results that create better, economic, social and environmental impacts for the benefit of the general public.

UN Secretary –General Ban Ki-moon, a co-host of the roundtable with China took his time to sincerely thank China for its support and commitment to nations of the global south. He said, “All this Support will go a long way to address the needs of the poor and the most vulnerable and contribute political momentum for the success of the climatic negotiations in Paris in December. “He further added that as the UN tried to implement the 2030 sustainable-development agenda, it would be paramount to widely share the effective policies and practices that China and other fast-growing economies in the global south are employing.

In terms of contributions, China contributes more than $4 Billion of aid towards South- South Cooperation on a yearly basis.Erstwhile to the high level roundtable Gyan Chandra Acharya, undersecretary-general at the UN and a representative of the least developed countries confirmed that China is an example of a developing country that was able to transform its economy and lift millions of its people out of poverty thus setting a mark for many other nations. Gyan further stated that it was possible to change the narrative of the world that focuses on the myriad of challenges and the big issues facing a certain country. To him you should look at the possibilities. People can achieve success if there is global collaboration and cooperation. To Gyan China had demonstrated this aspect.

 

Xi said that China as a developing country is aiming at enhancing solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries in order to create an unshakable foundation of China’s foreign relations. He added that the country would share with developing countries more development opportunities.

“The profound friendship between the Chinese people and people of other developing countries are our most valuable asset. We will as always promote our development along with the common development of all developing countries, align our efforts to realize the Chinese dream with the endeavors by other developing countries to attain their dreams for a better life for their people and pursue common progress of all developing countries. China will never waver on this commitment, not under any circumstance.” Xi said.