Hi, my name is Daniel Ominde and I am really not surprised you do not know who I am. I am a journalist but today I ply my trade as a Content Director at one of Kenya’s secular radio stations – explains why you don’t know who I am. My work involves waking up at 4 am everyday and going to bed past midnight with the time in between used in figuring out what you hear on your radio and what you read online. Beyond that I (and people like me at Kiss and Classic and similar radio stations) even go a step further and decide how we package and deliver that info to you.

So today in the course of my work I check my Twitter timeline and I see #TuangamizeUmalaya trending and for a quick moment thought it’s a veiled reference to our politicians or the intrigues at the supreme court but hey – it’s neither. On the contrary it’s a bunch of “online experts” expressing their views on how the “Kenyan media has let them down” and turned their women into whores. These “media experts” got their PhDs from “Twitter University” and “Kwa base Community College.” They are actually very respected people in the society and are commonly referred to as bigwigs. Earn a lot of money (or should I say bundles).

This morning they are having a peer review session convened at “Twitter University” where they are analyzing a paper by one of their revered peer called C. Nyakundi titled:

Extortion; How Maina Kageni & Caroline Mutoko Turned Kenyan Women Into Pseudo-Whores

CAROLINE and Maina are leaving in their own bubble and they have managed to drag with them several listeners #TuangamizeUmalaya

— The Mutai® (@ItsMutai) February 5, 2016

The media as a whole has made prostitution glamourous,promoting socialites and their services day in. #TuangamizeUmalaya

— Kenya West© (@KinyanBoy) February 5, 2016

Because of their limited exposure and the fact that their qualifications from the backstreet “Twitter” university does not add any value to intellectual discourse they give Nyakundi who for once solicited the services of a copy editor and got his grammar right a pass. You know they say ‘if you want to hate, make sure you do so in good grammar’ (I will give him that). Of course without forgetting that this is the same guy who was expelled from a University last year…of course this is good work.

Let me get back to the gist of the matter though and give an actual intellectual review (here not peer) of the said submission.

My two cents as a media practitioner on the #TuangamizeUmalaya TT is this: The media is not here to raise your family.

— Wa Wambura (@IamOminde) February 5, 2016

What you hear on radio, read on newspapers and watch on TV is an actual representation of who we are as a society. Why was Tujuane the most Watched TV show when it aired on our screens? Why is The Trend more popular when it hosts socialites? Why do you read Ghafla articles more than you do opinion pieces on the Standard or Nation?

You see, the problem is never with the producer. In marketing they say the customer is always right. In economics my teacher told me that before you produce you have to ask yourself “who are you producing for?”

Just like normal consumables those shows have producers. You might not know this but them – not the presenters control the content of the shows. So find out who Maina Kageni’s producer is before exposing your ignorance on a subject you know very little about.

Not to digress. The question we as producers and content managers/directors ask ourselves is “who are we doing the show for?” This market is demand driven. If Kenyans did not like the content Maina’s show would not be the biggest breakfast show in Nairobi. Do you know how much advertisers pay to place their products on that show? Would they do so if it did not have listeners? That is demand right there.

So if Kenyan women (and men) are whores then they are whores because that is who they are and the media had nothing to do with it.

So there was no prostitution before @carolinemutoko1 and @ItsMainaKageni BS! #TuangamizeUmalaya

— Winnie Oscar (@Le_LadyBoss) February 5, 2016

Somewhere with your small minds and “bundles mwitu” you are busy tweeting #TuangamizeUmalaya saying how the media has failed in it’s role of promoting good societal morals – take a sip. A cold one. You see KBC is paid using your taxes (wait you don’t even have a job to pay tax – my taxes) to do that. The rest of “commercial media” are here as business entities whose primary goal is to make money educating (and here we educate you how we feel like), entertaining (play you music we feel is good for you) and inform you on trends from around the globe (you can call that eroding your culture).

In Kenya we are pretenders, we claim to hate corruption but only when we are not benefiting. We claim to want quality news content but we still watch The Trend. How come our TVs are not always tuned to KTN News – they have 24 hours of news coverage but nobody is watching.

I guess we are in the political season again and the likes of Nyakundi are trying to prove to politicians that they can sway public opinion by attacking the creme of the Kenyan society (maybe soon he will be with Itumbi and Mutai at Statehouse). The fool here though is you who is blindly following and believing everything you hear and read just because you have bought yourself some 20MB of data bundles – now you are a media expert, financial expert and expert to everything under the sun. My advice go get yourself a real job that pays with bundles of cash not data.

Before I go let’s look at this guy Nyakundi though. This is that guy who allegedly tried to extort Bidco and Nakumatt, right? Now he is accusing others of promoting extortion. Did Maina and Mutoko ask him to demand 20M from Bidco? Wait, this is the same ninja who tried suing Larry Madowo? Go take the 10K caroline Mutoko offered you my brother and get laid….you been complaining about everything, go get laid a bit and you will feel better.

@C_NyaKundiH Asante for the publicity ?
Your cheque is ready ?@GhaflaKenya @MpashoNews @TheStarKenya@LarryMadowo pic.twitter.com/dXQ2a3M2h1

— Caroline Mutoko (@CarolineMutoko) February 5, 2016

You know what I am tired, I can’t even argue about this anymore.

Tweet me @IamOminde