Post election violence in Kenya

With the recent troubles in Kenya the world was treated to a lot of bad news on TV and in newspapers.

No tourists I am aware of were hurt or involved in the trouble but the coverage has done enormous damage to the country's tourist industry and people are still and will be for a long time wary of going to Kenya for their holidays. This is very damaging to the economy and the livelihoods of local people who rely on the tourists. Of course the world news will not be reporting the return to peace and the fact it is now ok to go there.

Should we all be made fully aware with graphic images and news reel of what is going on even if there is nothing we can do about it, is this kind of media coverage even helpful to the situation, the people in the world who can do things to stop or sort out these problems are already going to be totally aware of the situation, the United Nations do not use the TV to find out where they should be concentrating their efforts...

I am interested to know what other people think about this?

The media from Europe especially gave very negative coverage.

The government must market the country aggressively to assure tourists that the country is a safe destination.

LAST EDITED ON May-31-08 AT 10:01 AM (GMT)

I think it's unavoidable that (western) media will report about violence erupting in a country like Kenya. I believe it got so much attention exactly because this level of violence is uncommon in Kenya. I do think the coverage could have been more balanced. I followed it pretty intensively and I noticed the 'good' news (breakthroughs in the peace talks etc.) didn't get half the attention in the media, or weren't even mentioned. But that's not necessarily because people in the West can only think negatively about Africa. They are also mesmerized by such events because they feel powerless too.

Of course such coverage damages tourism, but tourism was down earlier with the bombings in 1998 and 2004, etc. But after 6 months the tourists were back again. Two weeks ago, the biggest newspaper in the Netherlands had a big article, covering a whole page, about how safe Kenya was again, how friendly the people were and how beautiful the country is. It was positive only. Western travel agents will also be telling their customers that Kenya is safe again.

Besides, the fact that tourists stayed away may have given an extra incentive to Kenyan leaders to overcome their conflicts and make peace. I would have prefered a rerun of the elections, because president Kibaki is now getting away with election fraud, but the current power sharing deal between Kibaki/PNU and Odinga/ODM is the second best solution.

Kenya is getting back on its feet again - which is great because it's a great country with friendly people and a lot of possibilies.