Be positive, Uhuru counsels media

Nairobi. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, has called upon African news agencies to publicise positive things happening on the continent instead of writing negatively, which may globally keep tarnishing the good image of the Continent.

President Kenyetta said this yesterday during the CNN Multichoice African Award giving ceremony. He added that foreign nations had been getting negative information over the continent due to what African jurnalists had been reporting every day.

“Why are we reporting negatively on Africa and forget the successes of the Continent? That’s why I’m not surprised to see Europeans understanding our Continent negatively because of what you report,” he said.

During the award giving ceremony, Mr Hyacinthe Boowurosigue Sanou from Burkina Faso emerged the overall winner after writing the best investigative story that compelled President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso to resign.

Tanzanian participant Aboubakar Akida, who is an assistant spokesman of the Ministry of Information and Culture, was among the finalists because of his photo depicting this year’s Mwanza floods.

President Kenyatta urged journalists to write positively over Africa, saying, however, it is a dark continent with Ebola but the European Union has provided education and funds to help it.

“It is true that it is called a dark continent but over the past two years Kenya has succeeded in connecting power to 14,000 schools, therefore, over 97 per cent of schools have electricity now, there are good things because some of the African countries have also improved their democracies,” he said.

President Kenyatta reiterated that the journalists were supposed to report positively and accurately as they were depended upon to enhance the good image of the continent towards other nations of the world