Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri recently urged media houses to provide journalists with both health and risk insurance cover, touching a raw nerve for media owners who have stubbornly avoided protecting their workers against numerous risks their assignments expose them to.
Mr Kiunjuri said journalists play an important role in society while their work is fraught with all manner of risks. Journalists are normally among the first people to reach emergency sites just like security and rescue officers, often exposing themselves to harm and even infections
There have been cases of journalists suffering physical harm either when caught up in skirmishes or being targets of physical assault.
The most recent case is where Mediamax journalists were injured by rowdy youth in Kariobangi area as they covered a function of Nairobi Governor Dr Evans Kidero. Some journalists have been killed for reasons related to their jobs.
Yet only journalists employed on permanent basis have health insurance that includes their spouses and families, and can thus seek comprehensive medical treatment when they are injured or even fall sick while employed.
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Given that majority of journalists are correspondents, a euphemism for poorly paid casuals in media, they often have to foot their own medical bills in case they are injured or fall sick. With salaries as low as Ksh5,000 and some no salary at all, most journalists can’t afford health insurance and die poor, milked dry by huge medical bills. “The only thing media houses will give you some days off,” said a journalist at Standard.
The Cabinet Secretary said employers need to ensure the workers and their dependents are cushioned against the risks that come with job. But that’s wishful thinking in an industry that values the workers less than the work they do.
He spoke at Naro Moru in Kieni East during the burial ceremony of the late Job Weru Kirira who until his death from a short illness was a reporter with The Standard newspaper. Weru, who passed on at the age of 37, was a good example of how media houses have ignored the plight of their workers.
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Weru had worked for Standard Group for over a dozen years as a correspondent, filing articles almost daily from central Kenya, yet he did not have a decent salary, let alone medical cover. A KBC sports reporter based in Nakuru, Michael Wandera, stayed in the morgue for several weeks as colleagues raised funds for his funeral and medical bills.
That’s the life of most journalists in Kenya live, be it in print or electronic, as bosses who work from the comfort of their seats and airconditioned offices blow huge salaries which even include entertainment allowances.
The Kenya Union of Journalists has pre-occupied itself with lobbying for higher salaries, which is occasionally rewarded with tiny raises. The issue of health and risk insurance needs to get more attention from media owners and managers, KUJ and Media Council of Kenya.
Kenya is increasingly becoming hostile for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In a report released in 2015, CPJ said journalists face both legal and physical harassment, making it “increasingly difficult” for them to work freely.
The report titled Broken Promises: How Kenya is failing to uphold its commitment to Free Press says attacks on journalists in the country happen with “complete impunity”.
[crp]
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