Abysmal Coverage of Sports by Kenyan Newspapers
Most of the coverage of sports events in Kenya consists of nothing more than box scores. There is rarely any analysis or sound bites or post match interviews. In some cases, the dailies completely neglect to report on the National football league matches. The Standard in particular has become famous for completely neglecting to post the results of the Kenya Football league, much less write a report. The Nation and the Times newsroom generally get their results via SMS and then post the result of each match accompanied two or three lines. There is very little real sports journalism going on in Kenya today. Gone are the days when Kenyan sports fans eagerly opened the sports pages of the major dailies to read detailed match reports from their favorite teams. Nowadays these dailies would rather chase after wrangling officials to get soundbites from them.
The Kenya rugby sevens team has a significant following yet whenever they play in international tournaments the coverage they receive amounts to nothing more than box scores. The least the newspapers can do is offer a foreign correspondent a small fee to cover the team and provide some analysis. The Standard in particular are egregious in this regard because the person they have chosen to cover rugby appears to know absolutely nothing about the sport and is often reduced to plagiarizing the International rugby board website and this website.
The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation is probably the worst culprit when it comes to reporting on Kenyan sports on its website. This is quite a shame since it has been in existence for nearly four decades and boasts a vast network of correspondents and radio stations across the country. Its sports news website is peppered with news on foreign leagues including American football. As if anyone looking for news on the super bowl will visit the KBC website. They rarely report on Kenyan sports and when they do, its usually plagiarized word for word from another site.
In America and Europe sports media such as ESPN, Sky Sports and Sports illustrated play the biggest role in hyping up and promoting sports events and players. These media outlets know they have a vested interest in promoting the various sports leagues, teams and players because the more the league and its players become popular, the more people will read their magazines or watch their television stations and the more advertisers will be willing to pay for advertising space. The media goes as far as giving nicknames to players, teams and even tournaments. The nickname "March Madness" which refers to the annual college basketball playoffs was coined by the media as were nicknames like "Air Jordan" and "Hakeem the dream" Thanks to this media hype, many Kenyans who at first had absolutely no interest in American sporting events soon find themselves raving about March madness, the super bowl and even insignificant sports names like Danica Patrick. Because talking endlessly about these sporting events, the public soon joins in the conversation and before you know it, the media outlets ratings start to go through the roof.
Those who have watched ESPN for long can attest to being hooked on American sports for which they never previously watched..
During the 1980s Kenya was blessed with some of the best sporting journalists and outlets. Action Magazine was the first Kenyan periodical dedicated to sports. Their coverage and analysis of sporting events was first class. Their photography ranked among the best available offering some excellent action pictures. Their coverage of every sporting league in Kenya from football, to cricket to rugby , hockey and basketball was excellent. Yours truly became an avid rugby fan by following the fortunes of some of Kenya's best players of the period on Action magazine. The likes of Andy Kimwele, Dave Sakari, Jimmy Owino and Danny Kimoro became famous names in what was then and is still a minority sport. In basketball players like "Big Sam" Omolle and Ronny Owino became famous. And in hockey the likes of Peter Akatsa and Simi Goyal became household names. All thanks to Action magazine.
The now defunct Weekly review was another source of excellent sports analysis. Kenyans are now left with a media that pays scant respect to sports. Gone are the days when sports desks used to offer profiles of personalities on a weekly basis. The players would be interviewed and recount their most memorable games whether at school level or at club level. There was also other biographical data such as place of birth , schools attended etc. Gone are the days when the dailies used to offer insightful analysis of sporting events including player ratings.
The media is the best vehicle by which sports can be promoted. In order for a league to succeed or for a particular club team to enhance its popularity, it must remain in the public eye often. American and European leagues recognize this fact which is why they require their players to perform post match interviews. Its a win-win situation for both the media and the sport because the sports league gains attention while the media outlet gets more readers and more advertising revenue.