Veteran Citizen TV Journalist Jeff Koinange on Tuesday, August 9, made his inaugural live reporting in the Kikuyu language while covering the General Election.
Jeff, who is part of the Royal Media Services covering Kajiado and Narok counties in a helicopter, was asked to do a piece-to-camera for the vernacular station, Inooro TV.
Reporting live from a polling station in Kilgoris, Narok County, Jeff struggled with his mother tongue - often mixing his report with English words - but generally did a great job delivering the message home.
While briefing on the situation and the voter turn out at the polling station, he struggled to find a Kikuyu word for the word 'calm' forcing him to retreat to the official language.
"They arrived here as early as 6 a.m and they are in the queue (in vernacular). They are very cool, calm and collected," he stated as he switched to English, with a pinch of alliteration.
He then proceeded to interview some of the voters in Kiswahili - the official national language - before reverting to Kikuyu to make submissions to his colleague Mike Njenga who was back in the studio.
The celebrated journalist found it difficult to express the words battleground, incumbent, decamp, statistics and police presence in his vernacular language.
A number of his fans teased him, poking holes not only into his command of the dialect but also his diction, while others were shocked that he even understood it.
"Jeff, stop speaking Kikuyu like English, just tune your tongue to Kikuyu because it is your root. Anyway, we are enjoying all and peace be to our country Kenya." Ann Wanjiku chided.
"Jeff! Araria Gikuyu kinini muno muno. Lakini anajaribu sana sana. Niwega (Jeff is speaking very little Kikuyu but is generally doing a good job)," John Makori stated as he boasted of his proficiency in the language despite coming from a different community.
Jeff's team has been christened the sky team - in reference to their mode of transport as they cover the expansive battleground states.
With eligible voters turning up at polling centres as early as 3 a.m the 2022 General Election kicked off smoothly apart from a number of mishaps which have since been addressed.
According to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), 6,557,869 Kenyans had turned up to vote as of midday accounting for 30.65 per cent of the registered voters.
Jeff Koinange struggles with Kikuyu during election coverage. pic.twitter.com/QOapr7xwT2
— Kiprono Kurgat (@KipronoKurgat7) August 9, 2022
