In Kenya a recent dispute between the major
TV companies and the Government over moving TC broadcasting from analogue to digital
transmissions (the companies want more time), led to the proceedings in the
Kenyan parliament not being broadcast on public TV (just on radio).
Apart from the blessing of not having hours of TV showing a bunch of ill mannered and overpaid politicians physically fighting ....
It also had an unintended and very unexpected consequence. The highlighting of the practice of 'funeral jacking' ... whereby if there is any excuse for a politician to turn up at a private function such as a funeral e.g. The dead person was a local celebrity, or ex-politician, then sure enough they would appear at the event whether invited or not.
However as if this wasn't enough (imagine Tony Blair sleazing his way into your family gathering ... eek), there were several recorded instances of these politicians politely queuing up with the deceased's friends and family, ostensibly to give a small personal homily about the deceased, only to spend lengthy spells making political speeches.
To cap it all, they often made no mention at all of the deceased, or their grieving families, or even exhibited any idea that they even knew who the deceased was. So bad has this plague become, upsetting the bereaved, as well exhibiting a callous disregard for the occasion, that one politician, former Limuru MP Kuria Kanyingi, left specific instructions to not allow any local or national politicians to make any speeches at his own funeral.
The many Kenyan politicians who attended the requiem mass (only family were allowed at the burial), having been drawn by the chance to practise some speechifying to their peers, must have been gutted but surely this was a case of poacher turned gamekeeper so to speak.
Apart from the blessing of not having hours of TV showing a bunch of ill mannered and overpaid politicians physically fighting ....
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| Kenyan MP's Fighting Is A Common Sight On TV .... |
It also had an unintended and very unexpected consequence. The highlighting of the practice of 'funeral jacking' ... whereby if there is any excuse for a politician to turn up at a private function such as a funeral e.g. The dead person was a local celebrity, or ex-politician, then sure enough they would appear at the event whether invited or not.
However as if this wasn't enough (imagine Tony Blair sleazing his way into your family gathering ... eek), there were several recorded instances of these politicians politely queuing up with the deceased's friends and family, ostensibly to give a small personal homily about the deceased, only to spend lengthy spells making political speeches.
To cap it all, they often made no mention at all of the deceased, or their grieving families, or even exhibited any idea that they even knew who the deceased was. So bad has this plague become, upsetting the bereaved, as well exhibiting a callous disregard for the occasion, that one politician, former Limuru MP Kuria Kanyingi, left specific instructions to not allow any local or national politicians to make any speeches at his own funeral.
The many Kenyan politicians who attended the requiem mass (only family were allowed at the burial), having been drawn by the chance to practise some speechifying to their peers, must have been gutted but surely this was a case of poacher turned gamekeeper so to speak.
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