Are these articles ever edited?

Youth in Obunga slums, Kisumu, read the Daily Nation on August 16, 2017. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • In fact, you can travel from Limuru to Nairobi before the news resumes. This is making some viewers shift to other stations.

We have some leftovers of readers’ voices from last year. We cannot publish all of them, though, because of the limited space.

Anchors should keep religious comments to themselves

Nothing irritates and annoys me like the tendency by some news anchors to make religious statements before or after reading the bulletin.

By the time I stopped watching news bulletins of the mainstream media houses, some news presenters had become notorious for using religious statements such as “God bless”, “Hope you had a blessed day” and “Have a blessed night”.

Also, they were notorious for using offhand comments such as “We send our condolences to the bereaved families”.

“What an inspiring story” and “We hope action will be taken by the authorities and the suspects arrested” between stories.

Again, news anchors should keep their drinks hidden from the sight of viewers.

These juvenile, irritating and annoying habits of news anchors of the mainstream media houses will become our next tourist attractions.

Why can’t they emulate Al Jazeera or the BBC, where offhand comments between stories, religious slogans and drinks are not allowed?

— Njoroge Kibe, Kajiado.

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News bulletins are far too long

Television news used to last about 30 minutes. In Europe and America, they last 10 to 15 minutes maximum, with no advertisements.

But in Kenya, TV news now takes 45 to 60 minutes. The anchor reads, say, three news items then a tsunami of adverts follows for 10 minutes.

In fact, you can travel from Limuru to Nairobi before the news resumes. This is making some viewers shift to other stations.

Radio stations are doing the same and, secondly, most TV and radio stations have stopped giving us foreign news.

No wonder few Kenyans, like Americans, know what is happening outside their country.

— Robert Musamali, Nairobi.

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Are these articles ever edited?

The standard of writing, especially by those who report on county news, leaves a lot be desired these days. At times, one if left wondering if these are really writers within the Nation Media Group.

Take the article “Victims of fistula speak of suffering and stigma in battling the ordeal” by Kazungu Samuel (Daily Nation, October 12, page 26).

The lady interviewed was Dama Kanadzina, yet the writer goes ahead to refer to her as Ms Jumwa, which had not been given as part of her name. Then later he writes, “Mr Ruwa said he stood with her (sic) wife and gave her hope.”

Aren’t these articles edited?

— Chris Otieno

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Methuselah lives on in ‘Nation’ obituaries pages

Charles Otieno points out that a funeral announcement of Clement Gathuku Pancrasio of Kiawaita Village, Nyeri, which appeared on page 52 of the Daily Nation of October 28, had a picture caption that read: “Sunrise 1395-Sunset 27/10/2018.”That made Gathuku 623 years when he died!

That puts the deceased in the league of Old Testament patriarchs such as Methuselah, who died at the age of 969.

But did Methuselah really live that long? Some scholars believe his age — like that of Gathuku — was the result of an error or mistranslation that converted months to years, making him 969 years old instead of 80.

There were other errors in the Gathuku funeral announcement, most likely written by a family member.

His body was to be collected from the mortuary seven days before the date on which he was said to have died while the fundraising took place four days before he died.

The Nation transition pages continue to exhibit the nation’s literacy.

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How can one have his items published in your newspapers, which have a wide coverage and are good for educative purposes and are highly read and sought after?

I would gladly welcome the chance of writing for you.

— Moses Mutie

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