Debt saga lifts lid on scribes-turned-MPs' silence

When he ran out of political options in August 2023, President Ali Bongo of Gabon pleaded with the world to ‘make some noise’ and save his regime.

As prowling soldiers seized power in Libreville, the visibly weakened leader recorded a terse video message urging the international community to speak on his behalf.

“I am sending a message to all the friends all over the world to tell them to make noise for the people here have arrested me alongside my family,” said Bongo.

For a strongman who had just suffered a stroke, it was a moment of raw desperation. When systems fail and power slips, you fall back on your networks. You turn to those who know you, those who owe you or at the very least, those who can understand your plight.

This week, Bongo’s words echoed among media and free speech advocates in Kenya as the sector grappled with reports that Parliament had rejected a National Treasury allocation meant to settle billions of shillings owed to media houses. With President William Ruto’s assent to the Supplementary Appropriations Bill 2026, the Budget and Appropriations Committee had its way.

I entirely blame the Samuel Atandi-led Budget committee, not President Ruto. Be that as it may, what’s undeniable is the fact that the debt is choking newsrooms in ways never seen before. Many patriots have previously demanded that the debt, estimated at a billion shillings, be settled even if in bits, saying it isn’t just a commercial issue but a threat to democratic accountability.

The media is already under ineffable siege from many external factors perhaps only comparable to what Bongo feared in the hands of juntas. Traditional advertising revenues collapsed under the weight of the digital revolution. Then there’s the unforgiving shift in audience habits. The glory days are far gone!

Newsrooms have shrunk and business models are wobbling. In our case, some media insiders point to what they call the ‘fattest elephant’ in the room, which is the preferential allocation of State advertising to a select outlet. Policy decisions have distorted the market and badly deepened inequality in the sector.

Now that Parliament didn’t approve funds, one question is unavoidable. What should the media do in the immediate term? Perhaps nothing. But someone should do something. Parliament has individuals (elected and nominated) who fully understand the workings of the media. The people who once lived its deadlines, its fame, its power and its public mission. Yet, for the most part, they are silent or have become fraidy-cats.   

What if ex-journalists and former media workers who are members of the National Assembly and the Senate decide to ‘make some noise’ the Ali Bongo style? What if Mohammed Ali (Jicho Pevu), Naisula Lesuuda, Yusuf Hassan, Sabina Chege, Gathoni Wamuchomba, Dennitah Ghati and Enoch Wambua among others woke up one morning and held press conferences, spoke persuasively on the floor of the Houses, convened ‘mediation’ meetings or simply demanded fairness?

Wouldn’t that count for something worthy for an industry that shaped them into what they are today?   From a media researcher’s perspective, newsrooms, big and small, across the world are in distress due to cash flow crises. Some multimedia firms can hardly pay salaries or meet operational costs, amid callous threats from auctioneers and regulators.

In one editors’ WhatsApp group, a senior journalist captured the mood. It seems media has no friends left, he wrote. That may or may not be true. But perception matters a lot. By the way, the former media practitioners serving in the Legislature don’t have to agree on everything. They may even be quietly supporting the Fourth Estate. But in moments like this, loud silence is indistinguishable from indifference.

I’m afraid that the over-cautiousness of the former scribes in the two Houses of Parliament makes them appear to fear their own shadows. The industry they once called home can benefit from just ‘some noise’ like what Bongo desperately needed. But also, never forget or forsake where you came from.