Blog On

The heat has turned on Kenya’s bloggers. I can still see the establishment’s dogs sneering as the word rolls off their lips: “bloggers.” Like a dirty word. As if the targets of the supposed insult are meant to bow their head in shame and repentance. Further, so as to demonstrate commitment to a rehabilitated lifestyle, to delete all their social media accounts forthwith.

Granted, there’s some bad eggs exhibiting road rage on the information superhighway. That’s the way of the world; it’s got all types in it. A few obscene louts cannot justify the mayor’s gagging the whole town. But when the mayor DOES want to gag the whole tow, he points at the obscene louts and exaggerates the dangers thereby posed.

(e.g PATRIOT Act.)

Clearly, certain of the long established mainstream journalists are a very territorial breed of writer. Competition (real and imagined) from the blogosphere does not sit well with these. They will smear the collective reputation of bloggers with innuendoes designed to undermine their credibility, using insinuations only barely within the outer margins of plausible deniability. They will cast aspersions on the qualifications, reputations and methods of bloggers in order to mentally situate them in the same ideological dark cave with anarchists, misfits, pranksters and terrorists. They will read the riot act and conjure up the vague mirage of legal prosecution to jinx the blogger’s courage with a pinch of fear.

To quote Richie Spice (in Got to make it):

“They will try to get you out\ 

Full your mind with doubt\ 

full your heart with fear\ 

So you no reach nowhere.”

I call upon all bloggers: You got something to say? Blog on; by all means, blog on.