[kictanet] Wanted: A new KBC now!

[Grace Githaiga]

Wanted: A new KBC now!
http://www.eastafricapress.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=633:wanted-a-new-kbc-now&catid=69&Itemid=138 

 “The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” – Steve Biko.Workers at Kenya Broadcasting Corporation seem to have been possessed by the spirit of Biko’s words. And KBC may never be the same again. The Bulletin salutes the workers for their successful strike that ended last week. Folks, that was fantastic!When a wave of strikes swept the country last year, indistinct murmurs of discontent were heard at Broadcasting House on Harry Thuku Road, Nairobi. Nothing unusual. Nobody, not even The Bulletin in its not-so-grey-haired wisdom, thought much of the grumbling.The woeful tale of how the public broadcaster is run like a tea-and-mandazi kiosk in Muthurwa by its managers and other interested elements outside Broadcasting House is common knowledge.The KBC board has often been peopled by characters, currently including a pastor and a former school head, who have no idea what running a public broadcaster is all about.We have had occasion to wonder on these pages how any serious organisation would hire a clown of no known managerial acumen to run about 20 radio stations. And without training in mass media or communication or journalism; whatever you will call it.People have been working at KBC for years without a contract. Morale is always at an “all-time” low. Mystery surrounds hiring and promotions. The corporation pays the bulk of its workers peanuts, while the top guns enjoy good salaries and benefits.Facilities at KBC belong in the last century. Who built those timber prefabs, by the way, and why? Were they not supposed to be temporary?KBC news is still for all intents and purposes controlled by powerful individuals outside the corporation, not the editors.Independent TV producers who sell local programmes to the broadcaster are owed millions of shillings.Things hit rock bottom when the corporation’s immediate former MD and the legal secretary were sacked last year and charged with fraud.But the longsuffering KBC staff surprised everyone. They channelled their grievances to Parliament and even spoke to their media colleagues about their plight. That was exemplary courage, given the very sorry state of industrial organisation in the media sector in Kenya.Media people often waste no time exposing the suffering of workers in other sectors, but not their own. Within the industry, everyone fights for themselves – by talking nicely to the boss, getting oneself a tribal godfather, agreeing to some funny demands, or fleeing to greener pastures elsewhere.At KBC the bosses were alarmed by the turn of events. They tried to contain the situation through manipulation and vague pledges. Around Christmas, with a strike threat looming, the management laid on a huge end-of-year bash to try to mollify restive workers. We reviewed it here.The message from the top guns was the usual baloney: We are family. We greatly value your work. You have put KBC on the national (sorry, world) map. We are human too: We understand your complaints. But you also really ought to be grateful that you have a job at all in these hard times. Things are complicated, but we are going to do something soon…But the workers enjoyed the bash, went home for Christmas and returned unbowed to announce that they would down their tools in a matter of weeks if their grievances were not fully addressed.And that is what happened the other week. Management tried a worm-eaten carrot here and a stick there. The workers stayed put. They paralysed operations at the “leading national broadcaster”.MD Waithaka Waihenya, the former newspaperman who has a passion for fiction writing, had a real crisis on his hands. Workers carried screaming placards and chanted slogans. They spilt the beans on the streets about the ugly skeletons hidden behind that beautiful gate manned by GSU toughies on Harry Thuku Road and announced: ‘the donkey is tired’.The media, as expected, feasted on the strike – with reporters from various media houses pretending they did not have similar problems at their own places of work, or even worse. Anyway, they were doing the story they were assigned.But the Star newspaper came out to condemn the “wildcat strike” in an editorial. KBC management had agreed to some demands and negotiations with union officials were ongoing. The union had distanced itself from the strike. And even that garrulous unionist-in-chief, Francis Atwoli, asked the workers to return to work. Was the Star for real? Was Mr Atwoli genuine or speaking with an eye on his future coverage?Anyone who knows anything about trade unions in Kenya today would be very sceptical when officials and industry captains appear to read from the same page. KBC workers seemed to be alive to this fact. They went ahead full steam.And then came the big one: Information and Communication Minister Samuel Poghisio surfaced, looking quite no-nonsense. He declared the strike illegal and ordered the workers back to work or they would be sacked within hours and their jobs advertised.The workers ignored him… And the rest, as you well know, is history. He ate his words.Last week, KBC workers’ reps appeared before a parliamentary committee and spoke very candidly. Their bosses followed, sweating out details about the state of things at KBC.Wasn’t that a great sight? Management denied all that stuff about “sexually transmitted promotions” and “interviews on the carpet”, which KBC insiders afraid of victimisation alleged to be rife.In other parts of the world, there would be sacking and resignations of managers at the public broadcaster if stuff like that became public. Not in Kenya.There was Walter Mong’are a.k.a Nyambane, the Radio Programmes Manager, his clownish grin wiped off his face, trying to explain that he went to some of the best schools in the country and that as a Kenyan he is entitled to a job. Workers had demanded to know how he got his job and whether he had the required qualifications. Beautiful!Indeed, Kenya was watching, as the Channel One TV slogan goes. KBC will never remain the same again. The momentum the workers have set must be sustained. A new KBC Act is needed urgently, together with other key reforms. The corporation must be turned into a world-class public broadcaster in line with provisions of the Constitution to serve the people of Kenya.The days when KBC was a seedy mess where bosses conduct “ horizontal interviews”, when managers were also the institution’s suppliers, when news content was decided outside the newsroom, when underpaid workers lived in mortal dread of the landlord, etc, must surely belong to the past.And we have the resolve of KBC’s workers to thank for that. The Bulletin celebrates you!  		 	   		  
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