The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) recently held an engagement with strategic stakeholders in Mombasa County in a bid to propagate the Council’s work.
MCK Mombasa Regional Coordinator Maureen Mudi confirmed the Council’s commitment in holding similar events across the country as a response to address emerging stakeholder needs.
“The Council remains committed to enhancing stakeholder engagement on media matters. We are in the process of conducting a stakeholder mapping exercise which will help us to identify needs and areas of engagements between our stakeholders and the media fraternity,” said Ms Mudi at the stakeholders meeting convened at the Lunga Lunga Sub- County offices.
She noted that the uniqueness of Lunga Lunga Sub-County was critical due to the cross-border issues it presents.
“Lunga Lunga Sub-County is one of the border towns with serious cross-border issues, that seldom make it to the news despite having several national and county offices in the area that serve the community. The finding from the stakeholder mapping exercise will assist us to create better working relationships with our stakeholders and facilitate journalists in their work”, she said.
Ms Mudi advised the officers to be innovative when dealing with journalists in the region by embracing technology as a means of reaching out to journalists in far flung areas.
“One of the ways to deal with the distance between you and the journalists is by use of technology. Create a WhatsApp Group with journalists for ease of sharing stories in cases of travel difficulties. A good journalist can always make follow-ups to fill in the gaps,” said Ms Mudi.
Deputy Sub-County Commander Mwendwa Mwangangi called on the media to deploy more personnel to cover news that rarely get highlighted due to the vastness of the area.
“Our issues are captured when we need them to. Others are however not captured due to the fact that we don’t have journalists solely based in the Sub- County,” said Mwangangi.
Kenya Revenue Authority Deputy Head at the Lunga Lunga One Stop Border Point Felix Limo noted that even though the tax institution gets fairly covered through its in-house communications department, it would be important for the media to work towards highlighting issues around cross-border trade, security at the border as well as the workings of the multi-agency teams from within and across the border.
“The challenges are not unique to us but we emphasise on cross border movement and want locals to understand that they need to document their movements,” Mr Limo said.