A doctorate degree or PhD warms the heart and instantly earns people honour and respect, what with the honorific Dr, daktari or doctari, a corrupted pronunciation in Kenya. PhD students itch to use the title ‘Daktari’ even before the end of orientation.
A Plain is surveying the Kenyan newsrooms for journalists holding the academic title, their desks or where they migrated to after acquiring this lofty intellectual power whose lustre is however waning because of quality. When Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in 2019 graduated 118 candidates at a single ceremony, there was an uproar.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha retorted: “We are churning out people who can’t even write application letters. Everybody wants to be called ‘PhD’. PhD kitu gani!”
Almost to a man, A Plain found out, journalists quit the newsroom after graduating with a PhD, perhaps denying media houses the much needed talent at a time the world is grappling with various headaches that require more nuanced media reporting.
Disruptions such as climate change, rights violations, economic upheavals, political storms, deviance, entrepreneurship… require thinkers and experts to break down the complex subjects. Sadly, to no avail for the consumer of mass media content in Kenya.
Benjamin Muindi, a former Daily Nation correspondent who covered Education, left the newsroom early in his journalistic life and went back to school. A Chevening scholar, Muindi this November earned a PhD during the Daystar University’s 44th graduation ceremony. “Rising star, shining beyond impossibilities,” Dr Muindi celebrated his decoration with Facebook friends.
Daily Nation’s John Kamau wished him “all the best in the scholarly phase of your journey,” perhaps saying Dr Muindi was through with his newsroom life. A number of journalists went to teach after their PhD.
Kenyan scribes have worked up the academic ladder, earning this gem, but they are not many. Women are fewer.
Jemimah Mwakisha, Irene Awino and Njoki Chege are some of the few names that easily pop up. I am not very sure, many journalists told A Plain on the women PhD journalists in Kenya. Dr Awino is teaching in the US while Dr Chege is a director of innovation at Aga Khan University in Nairobi. Awino, before her academic journey to the US where she earned the feather, was a sub-editor with The Standard and Daily Nation newspapers.
Dr Chege is a prolific writer who got a whale of newspaper space that she used to harangue people, especially women, under the banner of ‘City Girl’ in the Saturday Nation. She changed the hard-hitting City Girl tone and is now focused on innovation subjects while giving students pep talk on the professions and skills.
Dr Mwakisha is a communications and mobilisation officer at the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is also a university lecturer.
Naim Bilal, a former Daily Nation reporter and editor who also worked at the Judiciary as a communications officer, is managing director of the struggling State broadcaster KBC. Dr Bilal is a seasoned newspaper editor and PR man.
Among the Kenyan journalists who have risen to become top editors (managing editor and editor in chief), only few have PhDs, including Peter Mwaura, a former Daily Nation managing editor who is now the daily’s ombudsman and writes a weekly Friday column.
Many journalists have risen to become top editors without higher academic qualifications than the first degree, one of the reasons many scribes may have given books a wide berth. Nonetheless, a few years ago Nation Media Group hired a PhD for a group training editor, somewhat challenging the newsrooms to return to school.
A Ugandan, Peter Mwesige stayed at NMG for a few years before leaving to found a media campaigns outfit called African Centre for Media Excellence where, among other roles, he trains journalists and fights for freedom of expression. Dr Mwesige is a former head of mass communication department at Makerere University.
Nyakundi Nyamboga who mainly covered the courts for The Standard after studying Law, is now a don at Moi University where he teaches and is the coordinator of the School of Human Resource Development.
Other journalists at The Standard who earned this academic badge are Ken Ramani and George Nyabuga who are lecturers at Mt Kenya University and the University of Nairobi in that order.
Before life in the academia, Hezron Mogambi, Julius Bosire, Samuel Siringi, and Joseph Nyanoti—who did 17 years in the Kenyan media houses—were Daily Nation journalists. Prof Mogambi and Dr Siringi lecture at the University of Nairobi while Dr Nyanoti is a don at USIU-Africa, having taught at Daystar, Tangaza College and the University of Nairobi.
Dr Siringi is also an aide of Education CS Prof Magoha. As a reporter and bureau chief, his beat was Education, something that must have made him fit easily at the Jogoo House-based ministry.
A former reporter, bureau chief, revise editor and news editor at Daily Nation and The EastAfrican, Dr Bosire is a lecturer at the Technical University of Kenya.
Bob Wekesa, a prolific writer who covered politics for Sunday Nation and Diplomat East Africa magazine, left the newsroom and is now a don at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Other former scribes holding PhDs in Kenya are Muiru Ngugi, Job Mwaura, and the late Absalom Mutere. Dr Ngugi teaches at the University of Nairobi’s School of Journalism.
Many scribes must have left the newsroom after further studies due to the “unsteady” nature of the assignment, going into public relations and university teaching because job security is not guaranteed while pay review and promotion remain unstructured.
aplainteam@gmail.com
