Editor: The following letter is from @BintiM, a close friend of the blog. It voices an opinion shared by many on the reckless abuse of social media by the Capital in the Morning crew. It’s a good thing she wrote it because she’s a lot nicer than I am; and a lot of the complaints we’ve heard about it were a lot more incendiary. But an issue like this does require a calm voice, lest it get blown out of proportion.
Words By BINTIM
“Dear Capital Fm,
I write this letter to express my strong disapproval and disappointment with one of your Twitter accounts @984inthemorning.
On Thursday, morning they put up a tweet which was found by many to be in poor taste and with malicious intent of politicizing an already touchy issue. This was first expressed by @LordHastings who Retweeted it.
They deleted the said tweet and later put up another tweet which they tried to pass off as the original tweet.
They even went to the extent of threatening @LordHastings alleging he changed the original tweet.
The thing is this is Twitter and a lot of people had already seen the original tweet. But of more concern is the way they responded to people who called them out on it. The only words I can use to describe this are they were arrogant and unprofessional.
This is not the first time that the said account has responded to listeners in this way. We could ignore the previous incidents because all there was to lose was listeners and if the management doesn’t find fault with that, it’s their problem.
But Thursday’s tweets were even more irresponsible considering the political temperatures in at the moment. Capital FM is a station that is listened to all over the country. Lest we forget our country was almost brought to our knees not so long ago and the media played some part in this. It is important for Capital FM and other media houses to remember that they have a responsibility in ensuring that their station does NOT in any way propagate statements that may be interpreted by some to be agonistic.
I feel like it’s the responsibility of all Kenyans to make sure that our country is not dragged back to 2007. In this light I therefore request Capital Fm to officially address this issue, take responsibility and apologize to us, their loyal listeners who were offended. I believe that by doing so they will be setting a good precedent that they are for a united and peaceful Kenya.”
Diasporadical 
Twitter: Where you talk about how much you know you don’t know…
The media in Kenya has a problem working with socialmedia, no doubt about that! I think they have no policies on engaging using socialmedia as a medium.
Truth is, there is nothing wrong with that tweet.
Explain.
I think there’s something wrong with making light of an issue people are willing to – and have – killed over.
Dude, I’ll ask you like they asked a tweep, “Are you for real?”
If I may….
I’ve had issues with their Social Media dudes for a while. I’m not sure if they don’t know how to behave on SM, or they forget that they represent an entire station, but I will say this: it’s turned me off of listening to CITM. Plus, the last time we tackled Capital for plagiarizing our stuff all we got was an ‘oops sorry’ and never even got credited for it. So anyway, ball’s in their court. Let’s see how much or little they care for their online audience.
Capital FM is a business and a recognized brand and i doubt that they would sanction this sort of behaviour. That said i think that they should be very careful about whom they let tweet because it can end up costing them. The bosses should monitor their social media accounts closely and take appropriate action when lines have been crossed like in this case. Also, they should apologize.
What is very disturbing, even more than the tweet that was posted and the response from Capital FM, is the way the issue was handled by the ever so opinionated twitterati. People decided to let it slide. Forgive my assumption, but I believe this was largely because of the allegiances many a twitterrati have with Capital FM. Allow me to take you back to #SomeonetellCNN, we were out there, putting CNN to shame for ‘irresponsible journalism’. Why didnt the same people who put CNN to shame with so much zeal handle Capital FM in the same way? If we are going to excuse this kind of absurdity and let media houses take us back to 2007, then we need to weep for this nation. How permissive we are becoming! Rot is rot, it doesn’t matter where the rot is coming from. If we are going to work together towards liberating this nation from the shackles of tribalism, we cannot afford to be this selective. Put them to shame! When the Gor Game was disrupted at Nyayo Stadium, people who tweeted these ‘stereotypical’ kind of tweets were put to shame without faltering.
And to Capital FM, that was irresponsible. Even more irresponsible were the responses you were sending out to your listeners. We understand your poor attempts at sarcasm, drowning somewhere in poorly spelt tweets. Deleting the first tweet meant that you saw the mistake you had made. Grow some balls and apologise, instead of claiming that someone edited your tweet. Sorry if it was meant to be a joke, we just didn’t get it. Maybe we are too slow, as you said last year.
The person who runs the morning show account needs to borrow a leaf from The Jam. They never insult their listeners.
^ This
I wish my responses could be as articulate as ndinda’s. Well done mate. You put into words what a lot of us were thinking. Reading some of these responses however, and even some of the tweets that were going around after the match makes me fear that what happened in 07 is bound to happen again. I know there are a lot of dedicated people @ home that are working to ensure it doesn’t happen but there are also a lot of people that refuse to change their dangerous and polarising (sic, just for @ lol below) views.
We cannot go down that road again.
Missed u btw @iCon. Writer’s block?
Life, bruh. I was pulled in so many different directions for so long, it took me months to gather the pieces back up.
BUT WE’RE BACK!!!
*evil laugh*
As iCon is fond of saying *slow golf clap*
I co-sign, endorse & approve these sentiments. Especially the bit about the “twitterati”. The allegiances with CFM are maad! Everyone needs to adopt my policy that no one’s sacred & nothing’s private. Then again, I barely give a fuck if any at all. #KanyeShrug
Those two events actually happened. Both those groups have members from all over the country. Its clever, but not offensive.
Is it responsible though? Not just the tweet, but the responses and subsequent ignorant behaviour?
A sad state of affairs this. Who will police the police so to speak. Social media in Kenya is a boon and a curse. It is as easy to create awareness as it is to create paranoia and hysteria. Media houses should be role models as opposed to “shit-stirrers”
My two cents in, the twitter accounts of media houses should only relay news, music info, concerts etc. Personal views should be expressed from personal accounts. The media house can decide to back up or deny the views of said presenter.
Irresponsible, yes. The PR and social media skills are poor.
Much ado about nothing…
When women in Nyeri are stereo typed nobody talks but when GOR and ODM supporters are stereotyped like this you raise a hullabaloo over nothing.
It shows in this country ther is no justice.
The stereotyping of Nyeri women doesn’t have the potential to lead to clashes. This does.
Still, that does not make it right. You do not right a wrong by measuring it against another wrong. Both are still wrong!
True. I was just trying to show him these are two different situations that can’t be compared.
there is nothing entirely wrong with that tweet….
1.i think the person who’s taking offence is very tribal,because non of those 2 groups should be looked as a tribal outfit.
2.the author of this post need to grow up and stop being a pillock! if they think they’re unifying people in actual sense the polarising this.
3.the blogger justfies their cause not in this post. dig deeper and if blogger are supposed to take a swipe at such exclamations,the intelligence of/in blogging needs to be vetted.
Poor researching and use of words to express an issue – even with a light touch.
The management of Capital FM, should not look like impeccable angels, rather, they should just own up, apologize for the blatant mistake and then the dust will settle. Nothing works better than reading the moods of the nation, and going with it rather than justifying your mistakes.
We are still healing from the 2007-2008 PEV wounds, and the media is partly to blame for this status quo.
Face the facts and apologize…..
Fuck all these people trying to gag free speech with teary pleas about being responsible. Capital’s observation does not raise tensions in any way. It just points out something some people would rather not have pointed out. The statements are true in the broad sense and, as such, there is no reason to apologise. RAO would agree. As he loves to say, “I many not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
The misplaced fear of ‘hate speech’ is used far too often to prevent Kenya from having serious discussions about anything. The worst example was during the 2007 election when media houses refused to run any content criticising a candidate, even when it was factually true and relevant material (such as evidence of deliberate falsehoods or inconsistency in policy). PEV should not be an excuse to ignore the undue exertion of pressure on key institutions by anyone.
Salala! Now Mbusi & Bonoko Deh of Ghetto Radio should read this and give some people a well deserved whooping… Nyahunyo Nyahu Nyahu!!
Woe unto Capital when Bonoko Deh and Mbusi of Ghetto Radio read this! Someone is bound to get a well deserved whooping! “Nyahunyo Nyahu! Nyahu!”
Personifier? Propaganda? lol@lol.com? Why the anonymity if you are truly proud of what you are saying?
I stopped listening to CITM because I feel their personal views (read Chris Foots’s views) tend to find their way into the conversations more often than not. Something which can be very dangerous. I applaud that they are trying to bring some sobriety and real issues to our air waves but they have to be more responsible about it. And when you get into twitter altercations multiple times with your listeners, there’s something you’re not doing right. This is the end result of hiring people who are not trained in journalism. They don’t know how to separate personal emotions from work… It’s a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode.
As bad and irresponsible as the tweet is and i believe the people responsible should face the music both by capital and the Kenyan law, Prominent individual should not go around making remarks that may be interprated otherwise.
Parties mentioned above should take extra caution and all media houses, not capital Fm alone should ensure that people under it’s stable should not pull the country into senseless killings.
This is a clever joke that could be taken the wrong way. Author of said joke should have posted it from his personal twitter not the CITM handle. That’s all.
Pamoja!!
Spot on! This media houses that blatantly show political bias should be shunned, its a pity we are the ones who give them high ratings by listening.
Nashangaa nashangaa nashangaa
Nashangaa na radio za Nairobi
Mnadhani …. mnadhani … mnadhani nyinyi ni Nonini
(Ati ka naongea matope funika maskio na pamba)
Adopted from Wakimbizi!
Pingback: On Kenya Rugby, Man City & The Power of Money | Diasporadical