While the kenyan elected leaders are battling it out over appointments to lucrative cabinet ministerial posts, Musa Radolo reports on the country’s journalists as they battle post election violence psychological trauma

A majority of the journalists in the country were either directly or indirectly hit by the problem while on duty as a result of being the first witnesses of violence victims and deadly personal encounters while covering the grisly post general elections violence which gave birth to the current jostling for cabinet ministerial posts.

The bickering over the posts that has since hit a stalemate comes in the wake of signing of a power sharing deal between the protagonists, Presdident Mwai Kibaki of Party of National Unity (PNU) and Raila Odinga of Orange Democratic Party (ODM) brokered by former UN secretary general Koffi Annan that saw the end of the violence resulting from the disputed 2007 general elections presidential results.

For the last three weeks, the badly psychologically traumatised journalists have been pouring out their extremely painful experiences during the violence that have remained to haunt them to date without getting relevant medical attention.

Post general elections violence trauma counselling sessions for media practitioners has so far revealed extremely disturbing varied traumatic experiences from the practitioners based across the country. Tearfully describing situations in which they invariably found themselves in as they discharged their duties for their respectful media houses. Making revelations of untold stories of their harrowing encounters at the mercy of marauding deadly merciless gangs or police.

Tear provoking experiences that in most cases threatened their very lives as they found themselves between hard rocks and steel. Simply because they had been identified as reporters or photographers of some mainstream media houses perceived by the violent gangs either as being pro-PNU or the ODM.

The media practitioners based in various regions of the country perceived to be ODM strongholds and working for media houses perceived to be pro-PNU were in danger just like their colleagues in a vice versa situation. The dangers were as real as those experienced by any ordinary Kenyan caught up in circumstances generated by the post election violence – perceived to be either an ODM supporter in a PNU stronghold or the other way round.

The worst experiences for the “messengers” were that despite being on duty just like the members of the disciplined forces – the police - became victims of police brutality – yet their only ammunition or tools of defence were – pens, note books and cameras. Their tools of trade.

The ministry of information and communications acknowledges the deadly risks involved saying that during the coverage of violent conflicts (post general elections), journalists and photographers often found themselves in the frontline of the events to get the best images and stories.

“This invariably exposes them to undesirable but necessary risks and experiences. Such as the gruesome images witnessed may haunt the journalists/photographers and cause them psychological illnesses that have far reaching ramifications including at work places and families,” says the permanent secretary Dr. Bitange Ndemo.

The critical question here being the serious health problems and complications they developed and experienced before during and after the last general elections. Many had never been exposed nor prepared for the gruesome scenes and risky personal experiences they encountered – especially in the post election violence.

Dr. Ndemo says that evidence gathered and symptoms reported so far range from anxiety and depression to emotional numbness and substance abuse. Post traumatic stress being another major cause for concern as it threatens the mental state of the affected media practitioners at the work place as reported by scores of media houses.

A round table meeting held in Nairobi immediately after the violence started slowing down of media stakeholders reported: “Journalists and media practitioners are traumatised but are lacking counselling to deal with the post violence trauma and the self denial.”

Another major challenge that was identified at the meeting was the urgent need to address serious issues of interpersonal relationships within the newsrooms of the different media houses occasioned by the partisanship and the huge chasm/divide the last general elections created between journalists in their places of work.

During one of the ongoing counselling sessions it emerged how a photographer with one of the mainstream media houses in the country was unable to take the harrowing and numbing gruesome pictures of the scenes he had witnessed and the deadly violence he and colleagues nearly became victims of.

The photojournalist had been assigned to cover the violence in Nairobi’s sprawling Kibera slums. What he saw and witnessed was extremely shocking and devastating beyond words. It completely paralysed him into a glaring zombie.

When he went back to the newsroom the News Editor asked: “How was the situation and Where are the pictures?”

He replied: “It was terrible. It was horrible. I have never seen anything like that. It is unbelievable. I have no pictures. I did not take any. I couldn’t. It was too much.”

It was only on further inquiry that the news editor came to establish the exact circumstances that made the photographer to be completely unable to un-sling his camera and fire away to capture the scenes. It was even later that the editor realised that he had been adversely affected psychologically and had to be taken for treatment and counselling.

This state of adverse psychological impact hit hundreds of journalists across the country who were deployed to cover the post general election violence by their various media houses. Two months after the end of the violence, they are still suffering from the post elections violence trauma.

None had been prepared nor had they ever been trained on how to handle and cope with such situations. None of the media houses had budgeted for dealing with the post general election psychological trauma for their editorial staff.

In recognition of the desperate situation in which the Kenyan journalists are still wallowing in – the post general elections violence trauma, the International Media Support (IMS) has swiftly swung into action to counsel those who are suffering. None of them had tried to seek treatment nor counselling. They had no resources or knowledge of where to go and what to do.

The initial phase of the programme targeting 150 journalists and photographers spread across the country is ironically being spearheaded by the Kenya Association of Photographers, Illustrators and Designers (KAPIDE) jointly with the Kenya Correspondents Association (KCA) and not the Media Owners Association nor the Media Council of Kenya. The target areas are those worst hit by the violence – Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu and Mombasa.

A research conducted last year by the African Women and Child Features (AWC) established that members of these two associations contribute more than 85 per cent of the news content that comes out of Kenya’s media outlets.

This percentage tends to go higher during the general electioneering years as media houses’ focus tends to shift from the city to the provinces or rural Kenya on political campaigns and elections. Members of these associations are also the worst paid and most ill equipped to carry out their duties.

Those affected say that as they found themselves in the thick of the deadly violence, unlike their colleagues reporting for the international media outlets – without bullet proof vests nor gas masks, sometimes without vehicles.

“We survived by the grace of God. Because we found ourselves taking cover as bullets from police guns whizzed all over. Some of our cars were lobbed with tear gas canisters inside. We were constantly in danger from police guns and tear gas as well as crude weapons wielded by marauding blood thirsty gangs,” said Joseph Cheruiyot.

He went on: “The situation got so bad in Kibera that if you were identified as a reporter or photographer for media houses perceived to be pro-PNU you were at risk of losing your life. Worse still people refused even to talk to the local media houses’ journalists because some colleagues covering the events for international media houses were paying out cash to get information.”

The provinces and the districts were the very areas which were hardest hit with the violence that saw more than 1200 people killed and 150, 000 displaced from their homes into the Internally Displaced People’s camps where many are still residing.  Journalists/photographers based in these areas were the worst affected. Yet the most ignored by their media houses.

“The media owners and employers in the media industry should also recognise the importance of emotional psychological and physical effects that are caused by their professional hazards,” says the permanent secretary.

He argues that besides the hazards the journalists/photographers experience in the field, many employers increase their stress levels because of the demands to meet targets within specific timeframes, whereas the staff were working under difficult circumstances and environments.

The situation was not made any better by virtue of the fact that many journalists found themselves in circumstances forcing them to offer help to critically injured victims of the violence at the risk of their own lives, yet they are not trained even in the rudimentaries of first aid.

A leading psychology doctor at University of Nairobi’s faculty of medicine, Dr. Sobbie Mulindi says the post election violence trauma can cause a lot of medical complications for the journalists/photographers who were affected unless counselled and treated immediately.

Dr. Mulindi who is spearheading counselling sessions of the affected journalists says that many of the media practicing victims risked developing deadly health problems like hypertension, general heart ailments, kidney complications, nervous breakdowns among others.

“Many journalists who were affected tended to resort to alcohol and substance abuse, abnormal behaviours which can lead to disastrous consequences. Psychological trauma has to be dealt with urgently. Apart from putting at risk the lives of the affected persons, it is possible that it can also be transmitted from one generation to another,” he said.

The doctor says that immediately the violence broke out with a team of other psychological trauma experts in Nairobi mobilised counsellors based in HIV/Aids VCT centres across the country for induction and deployed to IDP camps to counsel the victims of the post general election violence.

* Musa Radoli writes for the Royal Media Group in Kenya is the Secretary General of the Kenya Correspondents Association.

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