TRAGEDY IN THE STADIUM: CROWD SAFETY LESSONS FROM THE UK

Seven Kenyan lives have just been carelessly lost. It is highly scandalous that officials allowed a football match to continue, despite the unfolding tragedy in the stadium. Event management needs to be left to professionals, and here, the country can get valuable crowd safety lessons from the UK.

First of all, no major event should be allowed to continue without a set number of safety stewards. Their work is primarily to constantly keep a close watch of the crowd an immediately report to their supervisors any sign of trouble, however minute.

Such is the seriousness within which crowd safety is taken in the UK that this service is regularly outsourced to experienced and professional event management companies.

                                        

                                                                          Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, Copyright, Agachiri 2010

For example, at the Emirates Stadium in North London, home to Arsenal Football Club, the venue managers have their own team of stewards, who are deployed at all strategic places.

And because nothing is left to chance, the stadium management sub-contracts additional services to another event management firm, to ensure maximum crowd control.

So, as tens of thousands of football fans enjoy the match, hundreds of other personnel are monitoring safety-related aspects from inside the stadium, to the immediate external environs, including the car park, as spelt out by legal guidelines.

And every premiership match is categorized according to its inherent safety risks, based on previous crowd behaviours, which also determines the number of police officers deployed to the venue.

Routine Emergency Procedures

Anfield, Copyright Agachiri 2010   

A most admirable trait in the UK is the high level preparedness or alertness that safety stewards and their supervisors have to be put in. As a matter of fact, before any event, stewards are taken through emergency procedures. 

                                                

If anything goes wrong, the safety team knows exactly what to do because emergency procedures have  been rehearsed

                                                                                               

                                                                                              White Hart Lane Before A Match, Copyright Agachiri 2010


And one key element of these crowd safety preparations is the evacuation procedure. Using coded messages, event management officials armed with talk-back radio gadgets, are able communicate fast with each other on the nature and location of any trouble spot.

In Kenya, it is obvious the safety of spectators is not given such importance, because not even the death of fans is enough to prompt a complete evacuation of a stadium.

That more than 30,000 people can be almost abandoned, left under the care of a poorly prepared team of security agents, is in the very least careless and irresponsible.

Match organizers at the ill-fated Gor Mahia versus AFC Leopards clash at the Nyayo National Stadium should be held accountable for endangering the lives of Kenyans in the first place, by not putting in place adequate crowd safety measures.

Putting profits before lives

And to allow the match to continue as people are being rushed to hospitals or the mortuary, whether somebody has paid for it to be broadcast live across the African continent or not, amounts to greed and criminal negligence.

White Hart Lane, Copyright Agachiri 2010

You obviously can't expect the sophisticated crowd control measures and the cost implications that are achievable in a developed country to be replicated in a 'poor' country like Kenya.

The bottom line however, in my view, is that all human lives are precious and should be protected to the best of available capacities.

The UK has had its share of stadium disasters with considerable fatalities but  lessons were learnt and remedial measures taken.

Will Kenya witness another stadium tragedy or will the government take concrete actions to prevent such disasters in the future, including formulation and enforcement of legally binding crowd control regulations?

COUNTING ON THE COUNTY EDITION

It represents a significant shift in the way news is delivered in Kenya. The philosophy behind it being that with the passage of the new Constitution that is hinged on a devolved system of governance, news too should be devolved. That is why you can count on the County Edition to bring you news coverage from the very grassroot level. 


It's rather unfair and preposterous to assume that the major news stories in Kenya can only come from the capital Nairobi, and yet that for a long time has been the case.

So one gets to be regularly treated with a heavy dosage of news about what the politicians have been up to, either from the comfort of posh offices, homes or even hotels, even if the matter they purport to be addressing affects people in remote constituencies.

So what better way to shift the media focus away from the centre than to dedicate three days every week for a systematic and intensive coverage of other parts of Kenya, as categorized by counties.

There being 47 counties in all, it really leaves no room to have any one region overlooked and subsequently in the long run, untold stories and faces are almost guaranteed of a piece of the media spotlight.

Granted, it may appear as if the NTV County Edition  is giving undue time to what appears to be mundane stories that don't necessarily exude national importance type of issues. But that is precisely the point.

The news agenda should not always be prescribed to the audience from media organizations. They too can and ought to be given a chance to articulate what they feel is important to them.

It is high time the media entrenched a culture of listening to what its audience has to say and not just disseminating packaged information, with inherent slants and calculated agendas.

POLYGAMIST EXTRA-ORDINAIRE: KENYAN MEDIA'S BIG MISS

The number of his wives is estimated at between 100 and 135. His children could number between 210 and 350, the eldest aged over 50, the youngest a mere three months. And soon after crossing the 90-years bracket, the polygamist extra-ordinaire passes away. Why is it that the factoid bit is the one that fascinates the Kenyan media?

The exploits of Acentus Akuku 'Danger' without doubt are not you usual representation of the polygamous nature of many a traditional African man. But truth be told, they are not entirely verifiable.




An astute media establishment would, in my considered opinion, have ventured to break down the facts being thrown 'carelessly' into credible pieces of information.

My curiosity would have greatly been drawn towards attempts to bring out the human face of the reported many wives, however long it could have taken.

It is would have been easy to report about the accounts from this amazing homestead from the point of view of the late Akuku, as many media outlets have been doing over the years.

But the less trodden path, which could very well be adopted for a blockbuster Hollywood-type film, is the day to day experiences of the said many wives, in their own words. Just what drew them to this man Akuku?

Respect for privacy tenets and decency factors notwithstanding, just how did the wives get to have enough attention from the patriarch, in the marital sense?

That is the big miss by Kenyan media, or so I think.

DREAMS SHATTERED, NIGHTMARES USHERED: WHAT INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IS ALL ABOUT

In very simple terms, 'Dreams and Nightmares' epitomizes what investigative journalism is all about. A critical subject matter, told in a gripping and engaging way.

Without ever betraying any sense of embellishment, the reporter Yassin Juma moves the story beautifully. There is a clear focus as the investigations narrow down to the men behind the human trafficking syndicate.



Unlike many investigative pieces that tend to be too descriptive, perhaps fueled by a false belief by a journalist that the unearthed material can tell the whole story on its own, this one probes for answers as the story unfolds.

Yassin deliberately seeks to make his story take on a life of its own, and only momentarily comes into view to establish himself on the scene. The story after all is not about him.

And the patience taken to fully develop all the emerging angles is admirable. The compelling evidence of human trafficking adduced thus becomes more powerful and a delight to watch as an investigative piece.

It would really be a pity if the concerned authorities ignore the issues raised by 'Dreams and Nightmares' and pretend they don't exist.

A MULTIPLE MULTIMEDIA REALITY CHECK

I have had great expectations of venturing into the domain of a fully fledged multimedia brand of journalism. I still do but the reality is fast dawning on me that customizing all the online skills I have learned to suit my current job is not that simple.

During my academic sojourn in London, I kept dreaming of grand projects I could implement once I resume my NTV newsroom duties in Kenya. Well, I am here now and the quest of accomplishing my lofty ideas is not coming together as I had envisioned.

For a long time, I had developed a close working relationship with 'Google Search' as I sought to put together websites that would not only satisfy the examiners but also equip me with lifelong digital media skills.

But I find it difficult to now even put together a credible web-based video gallery, quite humbled technically, by the amount of coding I have to do, even with the Google-aided assistance.

But that is not to say the challenges are not surmountable. Only that I need to redouble my efforts and dedication to the multimedia cause.

This is where perhaps the sagacity of appealing to the wisdom of the crowd could come through for me. I am not giving up. I will deliver my targets as per the briefs I get and will once look back and ask:

 "How daft was I?"

WHEN JOURNALISM ROBS CHILDREN OF THEIR INNOCENCE

Fire guts a number of houses in one of Nairobi's biggest slums. The cause of the blaze according to one Kenyan TV station report: two women fighting over a man, based on an eyewitness account of a pre-teenage looking boy.

Now there is something just terribly unethical about this particular news story. And it all has to do with the choice of person to interview.

How do you subject a minor to attempt to explain how two fully grown women, earlier identified as commercial sex workers, fought over a male client and one subsequently getting enraged and setting fire to one structure, leading to the blaze?

As if that is not a big enough media ethics transgression, the interview of the small boy is aired as part of the story, with no attempt made whatsoever at concealing the minor's identity, unhelpful as it may also be.

Call me prudish, but that is just shameful, a blatant violation of the absolute privacy accorded to children and tantamount to abetting the moral corruption of a minor's innocence.

What well-trained journalists do is at times think beyond the actual substance of the news stories they are covering. Are there other grave implications, especially when dealing with children?

Would leaving the boy's interview out of this particular story have diluted the understanding of the possible cause of the fire? I most certainly think not.

NB
Another unrelated but also irksome gaffe was the obvious display of one newish  TV journalist's lack of understanding of Kenya's devolved system of governance, during a live newsfeed.

Starting out in the electronic media has its immense challenges, and I did have my share of journalistic mishaps and still continue to humanly err, but care must be always taken to avoid making too elementary of mistakes.

REMAINING TRUE TO THE JOURNALISM CALLING: THE CASE OF 'THE SMUGGLERS OF MEN'

Investigative journalism is a major beacon at the heart of the watchdog role of the media. Television cameras often present viewers with compelling evidence of wrongdoing. But does that permit journalists to abuse their privileged position as they go about their business?

There's probably no way of setting ethical rules cast in stone because different circumstances dictate dissimilar approaches and various justifications can be advanced for any editorial decision.

It however comes dangerously close to crossing the professionalism line, when journalists assign themselves certain roles beyond their calling.

A case in point is when the reporters in the latest KTN Inside Story series, almost appear to wield arresting powers, usually associated with law enforcement agencies, as they seek to give their expose a dramatic twist.



Yes. The subjects might very well be illegal immigrants being smuggled into Kenya, but at what point does a journalist depart from pursuing the news elements, to unilaterally attempting to make a citizen's arrest?

In my estimation, which definitely stands to be corrected, it is unusual and a bit preposterous for a reporter to start ordering around the news subject, as the camera is rolling and then include the footage as part of the story.

It even gets more absurd, when the journalists finally just watch as the 'aliens' walk away, perhaps after realising that without police or immigration officers around, it is not in their place to detain them.

And remarkably, the other parts of this captivating series, did include law enforcement agents making such arrests. Is it a case of getting carried away by the thrills of the job? You decide.