The Media Council of Kenya has affirmed its commitment to prepare the media for the upcoming General Election.
MCK CEO Mr David Omwoyo says the Council has been conducting trainings on elections reporting for media workers across the country, with guidance from the Guidelines on Election Coverage and the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism in Kenya to prepare for the transitional polls.
“The Council will have trained over 2,500 journalists by the end of the next two weeks, which is the highest number of trained journalists ever recorded’’, Mr Omwoyo told two American election observer organisations namely the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) who are in Kenya to conduct a Pre-Election Assessment Mission (PEAM) ahead of the August 9th General Election.
The delegation, led by former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has met key election stakeholders such as the government of Kenya, Presidential aspirants, civil society, the private sector, media and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
Mr Omwoyo said the Council will release research findings on the media perception of different political groups in the country, adding that the mainstream media is closely being monitored. He revealed that there have been remarkable improvements in terms of reportage of the election campaigns.
“Mainstream media has invested heavily in training journalists and with guidance from training manuals we have seen improvements in reporting General Election matters”, he said.
He added that the recent media coverage report released by the Council noted that social media platforms are mostly used to push hate speech and disinformation and called for enhanced vigilance to counter fake news.
Mr Omwoyo revealed that the Media Council will set up media centers across the country to facilitate journalists to file their stories on the elections in conducive and safe environments.
“The Council has invested in media safety trainings for journalists in case of sudden eruption of violence”, said Mr Omwoyo.
He mentioned the Council has media monitors spread across the country and has set up a robust media monitoring software that can capture and analyse data in the General Election.
The meeting was also attended by representatives from the Mozilla Foundation and Fumbua Kenya to discuss election preparedness for the digital media.