SAMUEL KARANJA’S “DEEP THROAT”
MADE THE SUNDAY NATION
OUTSHINE THE STANDARD ON SUNDAY
As expected today’s front pages of national newspapers featured the resignation of Anne Waiguru; but the readers who bought the two newspapers expecting to be given an in-depth analysis that would reveal the real reasons for the powerful Secretary to the Cabinet’s departure must be absolutely disappointed this morning. Of the two papers the Sunday Nation came closer to revealing the truth than its competitor the Standard on Sunday. It is in the Nation that we get to know of a telephone conversation between the departed CS and the President. Many journalists came out to write stories about Anne Waiguru in the two papers; but it was the story by Samuel Karanja in the Sunday Nation that really spilled the beans about the resignation of Anne Waiguru. Reading between the lines of the Karanja’s story one gets the impression that Waiguru was probably shown the door rather than voluntarily resigned. That impression come when Karanja tells his readers that for weeks, it had become apparent that it was more a matter of when and not if she would resign. Karanja is the only reporter who got his story from “a government insider” who told him there was an agreement among President Kenyatta’s close allies that her departure should not be at the time when the Opposition and the Media were calling for it, “to avoid the perception that it was forced rather than voluntary”. Showing a superior ability to dig into a story of this high sensitivity, Karanja quote’s his own “Deep Throat” from State House revealing a telephone conversation between Waiguru and the President. We are told the conversation was about Anne’s health but reading between the lines this conversation must have been the one in which Uhuru either asked Waiguru to step aside or resign. Though the Standard on Sunday had four full pages full of the Waiguru stories and pictures each one of those stories was basically based on what Waiguru had said at her press conference or what the Opposition leaders had to say about her resignation. The Sunday Nation’s six pages on Waiguru had Samuel Karanja’s analysis as the most brilliant piece of in-depth analysis which proved that among all the people who were analyzing Waiguru yesterday he was the most outstanding journalist.
No comments:
Post a Comment