Revisiting Sinai Fire Tragedy: Residents are still gullible

In 2011, KPC sewer exploded, killing dozens of slum residents. Today, Sinai residents are sitting on a time bomb.

“Over there,” offered Sammy Gitonga, a trader on the makeshift market on the section of railway line overlooking Sinai slums on one side and Pipeline, on the other. 

Sensing that he flopped in pinpointing the exact point where in 2011 over 100 people lost their lives in the infamous Sinai tragedy, Gitonga changed tact:

“Follow the river upwards, can u see that pig?” he asked, directing my gaze to a dead pig floating on the polluted Ngong River. “Now, those two tree stumps over there were actually scorched in the fire.” 

With that map, I quickly paced through the narrow alleys sitting between and sometimes though the rusty iron sheet structures characterizing the sprawling Sinai slums in Nairobi’s Industrial Area. Determined to have a glimpse of what transpired two years after the infamous fire incident, I did not mind the open sewers, mud, stench, and scores of onlookers with mean faces. 

In 2011, Sinai slums broke into fire following petrol spillage from the nearby Kenya Pipeline Company depot. Following an anomaly, super petrol leaked into the sewer line that the East and Central Africa oil distributor used to drain effluents into the nearby Ngong River. The sewer line passes beneath the metal structures housing hundreds of families. 

“Fire started here,” offered Monica Karimi, a mother of four, pointing at the mouth, now precariously open, where the Kenya Pipeline sewer line empties into the Ngong River, “then it burned all these houses.” Riding on the floating fuel, the fire swam down the river, burning everything on its way. 

Official figures indicate that the Sinai incident claimed over 100 lives and over 500 were injured. Besides, the inferno roasted over 50 pigs. Rough approximation of the number of affected families from the partition markings on the dilapidated floor plans indicates 20. Karimi believes that the inferno wiped out entire families. 

That dawn, slum dwellers woke up to news of petrol flowing through the sewer.  “This was not an isolated incident,” recalls Peter Musyoka, 36, Sinai resident. According to Musyoka, diesel or petrol occasionally flew through the sewer line and residents rejoiced in scooping this commodity for sale. “In 2007, I made a kill by scooping 200 liters of diesel,” he adds. 

With this precedent, Musyoka was amongst the swarm of slum residents scrambling for the spilt fuel on the morning of September 12, 2011. Karimi owns that she was lucky to be alive. She was among those who had gotten their share of the precious commodity and had succumbed to pressure from the growing crowd. She watched the development from the comfort of her contraption, 100 meters away. 

“Then it just happened. I heard a loud explosion followed by fire. In a flash, all these houses here were engulfed, including a pigsty that sat right over there,” offered Karimi, before gesturing to show the direction in which people were running over each other, carrying flames on their clothes, bodies. Musyoka was among the lucky ones and he has scarred countenance and limps to show for it. 

“It is hard to tell whether someone lit a cigarette or that a burning stove was responsible,” Karimi asserts.

Following the accident, Kenya Pipeline Company was categorical that it would not assume responsibility. Through Mr. Selest Kilinda, the Managing Director, the oil marketer argued that the Sinai residents were to blame for the incident. KPC oversold that the slum residents were squatters in its property. Ever since, interested parties are embroiled in court battles. Life continues in Sinai. The pigsty is back. Telling from the number of sows roaming around, business has rejuvenated.  

“Has anything happened ever since?” I asked, directing the question to no one in particular. “Nothing,” offered Musyoka. And as if on cue, Karimi added that the government is apparently waiting for another accident to happen. Hence the question on what exactly they believe could prevent future accidents.  

“People here are ignorant. Imagine, we did not know that a dangerous pipe sits right beneath our houses until the day of the incident. Some people are not aware that unlike diesel, petrol is highly flammable,” offered Musyoka, in a matter of factly.  

With these insights in mind, I could not help noticing the state of vulnerability in the Sinai residence.  Zigzagging through the alleys, I kept thinking how simple gestures by stakeholders such as holding regular meetings with these residents to heighten their awareness could help save lives.

Social media metrics: Are we getting it right?

Pope Francis. Study shows he runs the most influential Twitter account. Photo: telegraph.co.uk

Nothing is harder than landing a job in social media marketing. With the emphasis on metrics by the employers, landing these jobs is arduous. I am talking from experience. 

Early last week, for the fifth time in a row, I narrowly missed on an employment opportunity as a social media marketer. Way before going for the interview, I had acquitted myself well with my prospective job description. Initiating and sustaining conversations on social media, blogging, monitoring trends. Do they really change?

But I was not confident. Even with preparation, telling from previous experiences, I lacked the numbers. So when the panel of three waded into that area, I was certain my goose was cooked, again. I lost the opportunity. With 700 Facebook friends and less than 500 followers on Twitter, and 50 people across the various circles on Google +, I did not measure up to the prerequisites.  It kept me thinking. 

Employers seem to be stuck in an age old philosophy that to be effective in communication, one must have the crowds. What else would explain the setting of standards that prospecting social media marketers must meet in terms of numbers? Not less than 1000, over 1500, etc. Very rigid numbers indeed. What really constitutes an effective communication?

Clout. For communication to be effective, it must realize its initial object. Communication meant for entertainment should entertain, that meant for marketing should persuade. The outcomes should be measurable. For social media marketing, the measure of efficacy should be influence. A Twiplomacy study reveals how. 

The study, summarized on the Huffington Post under “Pope Francis Twitter Beats Obama for Top World Leader Spot” challenges the theory of numbers in determining influential  conversations. Tweeting on @Pontifex, Pope Francis has each of his posts retweeted around 19,300 times. Each of Obama’s posts @BarackObama gets 2,300 retweets on average. 

Counting on retweets as a measure of influence makes sense. It agrees with elaboration-likelihood theory of social influence. According to this theory, the more a person thinks about a message, the more likely the message will influence his behavior.  When interrogating a conversation, audiences could consider taking the central route or the peripheral route. 

Elaborating conversations through the central route involves interrogating the key aspects of the message itself. The peripheral route involves interrogating aspects that are not related to the message itself. For instance, the social status of the initiator. On Twitter, the only metric that points to how much we interrogate messages is the retweets. Other aspects of the Twiplomaccy study confirms this assertion.

The study goes ahead to chronicle how the two world leaders perform in the number of followers. Interestingly, Obama remains the most followed with 33, 510, 157 followers. Pope Francis comes a distance second with 7, 200, 332 followers. The universe of the study was not all-inclusive.

“However, if Tibet were to be included with the Dalai Lama as its spiritual leader, his @DalaiLama handle would beat out @Pontifex for the second-most followed account with 7.35 million followers,” reads the Huffingon Post article, in part. What does this reveal?

Clearly, the number of followers a social media account attracts is immaterial. What matters is the quality of the interactions emerging from the connections. Effective social media conversations are such that they appeal to the audiences.

Social media communication intended to influence behavior should reach the right audiences. In this case, the quality of the social circles an account links to is more critical. The quantity of the circles may not count. It is a question of who rather than how many people, you are communicating with. Then there is the message itself.

Social media accommodates all manner of conversations. Some are egocentric.  Reporting on what one has been up to during the day, soliciting for favors. Others are the hallmarks show off by the initiators, hiding behind lingo, on some aspect or two. Earlier, I said that each of these initiatives is important. It can initiate important discussions. However, the quantity of interactions may not necessarily enhance effectiveness, according to insights from the Twiplomacy study. 

 

Uganda’s Prime Minister, Amana Mbabazi, tweeting on @Amanambabazi, is the most conversational world leader. He replies to 96% of tweets. Rwanda’s Paul Kagame comes a distant second with 88% replies. Then there is the most active twitter account. It is the presidency of Venezuela. The number of tweets per day measures activity. The presidency of Venezuela does 41.9 tweets in a day on average. Even with all these numbers, these accounts do not comes any closer to @Pontifex in influence. Is this study relevant in Kenya?

Suppose the Twiplomacy study was to be replicated in Kenya, it would certainly earn the same rebuttal as opinion polls on politicians and their causes. Celebrities, for instance, would be shocked. Their huge followership does not translate to significance. Instead, apparent villains such as Chief Francis Kariuki, @Chiefkariku, would take the day. 

For once, owners of those accounts with numbers skewed towards followers rather than followership would breathe a sigh of relief. It is arduous to keep following people who you treasure and organizations that matter only for them not to follow back.

Who knows how it feels to meet nagging windows every time you log in to Facebook, threatening to disable the account since you are sending friend request to unresponsive friends? This frustration, too, would be no more. Recruiters would be not  be spared.

Organizations recruiting social media marketers would rethink their conviction with numbers. Having huge numbers, they would realize, is not a precursor to quality conversations. That it does not matter how many tweets a handle does. Instead, the quality of the tweets counts. More importantly, aggressiveness to answer any thread emerging from posts, telling from this study, would stop to fascinate social media account holders. In the meantime, the outcomes of the study are palatable. 

When I will face the interview panel again, and I dare it to be soon, I will take the panel head on. Immediately the question of how many followers I have on Twitter comes up, I will enlist this new reality. That they should instead get interested in the number of times my tweets are retweeted. For that measures their efficacy.

Social Media Informs Bestiality on Mainstream Media

Twiiter icon. Today, content on mainstream media is significantly informed by insights from social media

Bestiality is the talk of town today. Recently, the media has been awash with stories of men having sexual escapades on animals. A Twitter update recently lamented how cows, donkeys, goats, chicken, and dogs are now endangered animals in Kenya. 

Reading from conversations on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and WhatsApp, the Kenyan moral fabric is no more. What goes through the mind of a man to sleep with animals? This rhetorical question that scores harbor fertilizes the response that something must be wrong.

Already aghast Kenyans point accusing fingers on the mainstream media for the deterioration of morality, by airing these untoward stories. A Tweet addressed to Kenyan media houses by The Trend Setter reads: 

“Stop reporting cases of bestiality. We are fed up! You are the ones who are encouraging such behaviors.” Three people Favourited the post. It earned two reTweets. 

So what is wrong with radio, newspapers and television? And the media houses. Nothing.  

By broadcasting on bestiality, the mainstream media is not being petty. Besides, it is not ambivalent to people’s morality. Instead, it is adjusting to the needs of the masses. With social media, mainstream media has an upper hand in understanding how exactly to be accordant with the consumers. Welcome to the world of business.

Media houses are in business. Anything else is just moonlighting. Being a member of the Fourth Estate, influencing public debate, providing entertainment, setting public agenda, for instance. The underlying principle is simple. Get something to keep audiences tuned in, and make them loyal to your brand. This principle sells everywhere. 

We board particular matatus because they play some particular music, or provide internet services. It would be naïve to assume that playing music and offering internet services are what keeps the matatu in business. The proprietor and crew understand that through this incentive, their matatu would be competitive. With customer satisfaction, brand loyalty often follows.  

Similarly, commercials keep media houses running. To be meaningful, media must be relevant to the masses. When people capture and upload images on, say bestiality, and they go viral, the mainstream media salivates. It stops at nothing to tap into this swarm, market.  

Social media makes work very easy for media houses. Instead of doing surveys to establish people’s preferences, they easily go to social media sites. By monitoring conversations on their fan pages and elsewhere, media houses often come up with products based on an understanding on the needs of the masses. How untoward the preferences are is immaterial. 

 

How many times have we seen episodes of local programs themed on gay marriages, lesbianism, hard drugs, and sex? The other day, Witi Ihimaera’s The Whale Rider, a novel with gay undertones, outraged a section of Kenyans.  What Kenya Institute of Education did not say then was that they could have picked the secondary school set book because it exposes readers to current developments in the society.

 

With social media, people are rebelling against the traditional communication model. Information does not need to go linearly, from source to consumer. Consumers are no longer passive. Editing, censorship, framing, and agenda setting, signature processes in media houses, repel contemporary information consumers, who are salivating for the reality. Social media is a one-stop shop for this reality. 

Social media gives information consumers unparalled power. People know what they want to consume, and nothing should come in between. Before the era of social media, traditional media had not embraced interactivity to the latter. Anyone who has tried them knows that "Letters to the editors" are a mockery of interactivity, in its literal meaning. 

Fortunately, thanks to social media, consumers can rightfully dictate on their preferred information. This recent development appalls media houses. 

Social media is now the bell cow in journalism. Without following consumers to the social media, media houses are aware that they would be doomed to irrelevance. This then hints that when a media house realizes that stories on bestiality excite the masses, they have nothing else left other than to air such stories. 

Does this then portray the high levels of insensitivity on part of the media? Not really. 

Mainstream media broadcasts what the masses are already consuming. Failing to broadcast these stories therefore does not mean that people are not accessing them. Instead, airing these stories, and inviting insights from pundits, is a great way of promoting sober conversations around the stories. In the Kenyan case, it can help in separating the stories from the generalizations on ethnic groups they are attracting. This is not to glorify social media. 

Falling back on social media is dangerous to the masses. According to Abraham Foxman and Christopher Wolf in Viral Hate: Containing Its Spread on the Internet, social media is more potent than the propaganda schemes Hitler and Nazis applied on Jews. This means that the media houses should take narratives on social media with a pinch of salt. Then there is the meantime. 

Social media is unstoppable. It is time everyone appreciates that the world is changing. With social media and commercial orientation of the media, Kenyans should expect to see and hear more unconventional stories. From now on, the media will give you what you want.

45 Bus Kills Over 8 People After It Loses Control and Ploughs Into Traders

Over 8 people are feared dead this evening after a bus plying Nairobi’s route 45 lost control and ploughed into roadside traders in Githurai terminus, Kenyan media reports.

 

The ill-fated bus belonging to the Paradiso Bus Company was ferrying passengers from the CBD when its brakes failed while at the busy terminus. 

“8 killed on the spot in Githurai 45 when Paradiso bus from town reportedly lost its brakes on Thika Rd, running over roadside traders,” Larry Modowo, a television journalist, updated on his Twitter handle. 

Photographs from citizen journalist showed crowds milling around several bodies lying on the section of newly refurbished Thika Superhighway. 

Traders dealing in vegetables, clothes, and mali mali often occupy by the roadside around the Githurai bus terminus.  

“Paradiso is amongst the buses that cruise recklessly on Thika Road,” a Twitter update read.  

Accidents involving buses have been in the increase especially following the refurbishing of the road connecting Nairobi and Thika.