SECTOR 2 2.8 All media fairly reflect the voices of society in its ethnic, linguistic, religious, political and social diversity. Kenya’s media industry is a paradox. There are more women than men in journalism schools but fewer in newsrooms. Women tend to move into public relations and corporate communication after training. Since they are glaringly absent in the decision making positions in the media, the content tends to lopsided. Coverage of women is minimal and women’s voice are mostly absent in the media. Women appear to make news only if they play a negative role in the story. Underreported segments of the Kenyan society also include minority groups like Muslims and people with physical handicaps. “Unless people with disabilities take to the streets to protest, they are hardly in the news.” Islam is portrayed in the media only in association with groups like al Shabab and al Qaeda. Airtime and print pages focus on politics and economics. On television, it is easy for the first ten minutes of the newscast to concern politicians. Politicians are major players in the industry as owners, leading to unfair representation of voices in their favour. “The media is often considered a tool to promote their political agendas.”The rest of the newscast, which includes stories about social issues such as water or education, is viewed as “other news”. But there is some progress in covering ethnic groups and local communities. There is a least one daily newspaper published in Kiswahili, the “Taifa Leo” published by Nation Media Group. Many radio stations run programmes in one vernacular languages and spotlight local issues of concern. Radio stations focusing on issues of concern to slum dwellers has gained ground and give the dwellers an avenue through which they can express themselves, which is often absent from the upstream media. The impact of the township radios was visible in the amount of debate relating to Kenya’s new constitution in 2010. With the demand for regional and local news seen to be growing with devolution, the big national newspapers are now opening up more pages to local news. Several newspapers now run county (state or provincial) editions, which focus on communities far off from the major cities and marginalised groups such as women and children. 36 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER KENYA 2012