As a country we have only exhibited prodigious talent in athletics at the world stage. Our scientists, writers, actors, engineers, inventors and artists have not found room at the very top of their professions, save for an occasional loner here and there.
We have displayed flashes of short-lived brilliance in the spheres of diplomacy and peace keeping (and maybe in the beauty and modeling department), but we don’t have the staying power to be recognized as a having a clout in these areas.
What I mean is that Brazilians will have a resounding presence in the top 100 footballers in the world. Scandinavians are crazy and competent in motor rallying. Jamaicans can sprint. Croatians are good in basketball. Cubans and Thais can box. Cricket makes the Indians and Pakistanis go gaga. Italians can sing opera. The French are good in matters culinary. And yes Kenyans and Ethiopians can run!
Apart from athletics the other one area in which we have had a more than fair per capita share at the world stage would be in the area of electronic broadcasters. When you think about it, we have Zain Verjee, Jeff Koinange at CNN, Solomon Mugera at BBC, Esther Githui and Vincent Makori at VOA and probably a few others with leading media houses out there.
Is this a specialist area for Kenyans and should we concentrate on giving the world more? Maybe the brand of English and Swahili taught and spoken here have been our unsung heroes in aiding our people conquer the broadcasting world. Or is it our education system? Is it exposure?
The
new crop of journalists follows in the footsteps of successful old-timers who had already made an impact in their own small way at the world stage. We had Mohamed Amin and his poignant portraits of a hungry continent in the 1980’s. Salim Lone had also excelled in communications at the UN. Shabanji Opukah still reigns at the London office of BAT. Although environment may play a role in nurturing world beaters, it helps to have worthy role models.
My contenders for the seamless entry onto the world stage woul
d include Lillian Muli, Louis Otieno and Julie Gichuru from TV. They are real and have the confidence and presence to carry them. A number of their peers have, however, decided that imitation is the best form of flattery and today you have many young pretenders on the small screen trying too hard to be like Richard Quest.
The common factor in the rise of all these world-beaters is a sound foundation in technical knowledge by way of journalism or communications studies. Our local Radio “stars” on the other hand are a motley of backgrounds; from bank cashiers, taxi drivers, IT specialists, lawyers, anthropologists, actors, budding musicians, comedians, dancers, et al. The common denominator here is that they passed a “voice test”!
As a country we have only exhibited prodigious talent in athletics at the world stage. Our scientists, writers, actors, engineers, inventors and artists have not found room at the very top of their professions, save for an occasional loner here and there.
We have displayed flashes of short-lived brilliance in the spheres of diplomacy and peace keeping (and maybe in the beauty and modeling department), but we don’t have the staying power to be recognized as a having a clout in these areas.
What I mean is that Brazilians will have a resounding presence in the top 100 footballers in the world. Scandinavians are crazy and competent in motor rallying. Jamaicans can sprint. Croatians are good in basketball. Cubans and Thais can box. Cricket makes the Indians and Pakistanis go gaga. Italians can sing opera. The French are good in matters culinary. And yes Kenyans and Ethiopians can run!
Apart from athletics the other one area in which we have had a more than fair per capita share at the world stage would be in the area of electronic broadcasters. When you think about it, we have Zain Verjee, Jeff Koinange at CNN, Solomon Mugera at BBC, Esther Githui and Vincent Makori at VOA and probably a few others with leading media houses out there.
Is this a specialist area for Kenyans and should we concentrate on giving the world more? Maybe the brand of English and Swahili taught and spoken here have been our unsung heroes in aiding our people conquer the broadcasting world. Or is it our education system? Is it exposure?
The 
new crop of journalists follows in the footsteps of successful old-timers who had already made an impact in their own small way at the world stage. We had Mohamed Amin and his poignant portraits of a hungry continent in the 1980’s. Salim Lone had also excelled in communications at the UN. Shabanji Opukah still reigns at the London office of BAT. Although environment may play a role in nurturing world beaters, it helps to have worthy role models.
My contenders for the seamless entry onto the world stage woul
d include Lillian Muli, Louis Otieno and Julie Gichuru from TV. They are real and have the confidence and presence to carry them. A number of their peers have, however, decided that imitation is the best form of flattery and today you have many young pretenders on the small screen trying too hard to be like Richard Quest.
The common factor in the rise of all these world-beaters is a sound foundation in technical knowledge by way of journalism or communications studies. Our local Radio “stars” on the other hand are a motley of backgrounds; from bank cashiers, taxi drivers, IT specialists, lawyers, anthropologists, actors, budding musicians, comedians, dancers, et al. The common denominator here is that they passed a “voice test”!
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