Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja now wants the media to go slow on the coverage of widespread unrest in schools.
Sakaja argues that too much coverage of the incidences has worsened the situation with peer pressure influencing students to go on the rampage.
“In fact, I would ask the media to limit how they report on these cases because when other students see it others also want to do it because it is now cool,” said Sakaja.
“The problem is when we start reporting on these fires...they say 'have you seen Buruburu Girls? When are we doing ours?” He explained.
The city legislator stated that media outlets were the first to report these cases and minimizing such coverage would make students unaware of what is happening in other schools.
He was speaking while updating the senate on the fire incident at Buruburu girls in Nairobi, where students were seen jumping through windows to escape a fire that broke out in their dormitory.
Sakaja also alleged that too much pressure on students and the failure of schools’ management to address concerns of students have a hand in the school unrest.
He claimed that Buruburu students had raised pertinent issues that were not addressed by the institution, where students exhibited discontent over the school’s move to profile students based on their academic performance.
However, experts hold a different opinion on the wave of unrest in schools, stating that reporting does not necessarily escalate the situation.
Dr. Sam Kamau, an educationist and a media lecturer at Agha Khan University who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke, stated that failure to report would not be a solution as information would still spread through social media.
He noted that the matter of concern was the manner of reporting these cases, which should be objective and not meant to glorify them.
“The question would be how we cover these incidents. We cover them in a way that does not glorify those cases or give ideas and details of how exactly they are executed,” remarked Dr. Kamau.
Dr. Kamau also urged for policy evaluation to identify the root cause of the issue, rather than blaming the pandemic.
Cases of arson in high schools have increased in the recent past, forcing the education ministry to give students a break to ease academic pressure on the learners.
On Tuesday, November 3, the Ministry of Education ordered school heads to close schools in the next two weeks for mid-term, which had been abolished this term.
