Journalists who covered and were psychologically affected by last year’s post election violence are now going to benefit from a trauma counseling programme that was launched last week.

Organized by the Kenya Association of Photographers, Illustrators and Designers (KAPIDE) and Kenya Correspondents’ Association (KCA) and funded by International Media Support (IMS), the programme will provide trauma counseling to a total of 150 journalists.

“Providing counseling for journalists and photographers having witnessed some of the most gruesome atrocities but with no tools to handle the emotional shock has been identified as one of the most urgent and crucial needs by the Kenyan media community,” says IMS consultant Anne Poulsen. 

Like other people, journalists too, as human beings, are struggling with the aftermath of the political violence that killed almost 1,500 people and displaced some 500,000 people, added Poulsen. 

The programme is headed by a Kenyan psychiatrist specialist and expert in crisis disaster management, Dr. Sobbie Mulindi who is working in collaboration with a rapid response team from the Kenyatta National Hospital. 

Dr. Mulindi says like everybody else, journalists too were heavily affected given that they witnessed first hand most of the atrocities that were committed. 

“At some levels many journalists were involved in assisting the injured and some had to shade tears in sympathy with them, while others were directly affected,” he says. 

Dr. Mulindi is advising the media personnel to openly share their experiences with counselors as a way of starting the healing process. 

“You have written about other people’s stories, but you have not narrated your personal experiences.” 

The most affected by the violence were the correspondents who operate deep in the rural areas, mingling and living with people at the grassroots.

It is estimated that over 70 percent of the daily content, in both in electronic and print media, is generated by correspondents who in most cases are lack access to the trappings of urban areas and do not have the same leverage as their counterparts in major towns. 

The trauma counseling, which is part of International Media Support’s strategy in support of Kenyan media, is intended to assist them in this respect. The strategy entails rapid interventions including safety training for 60 media practitioners in three locations across the country, and a workshop in conflict sensitive journalism for 25 reporters in Nairobi. 

It will also involve a round table debate meeting of some 40 key media stake holders who are to assess the challenges facing the media and what needs to be done as a long term strategy. 

Other stakeholders involved in this new initiative include Kenyan media institutions – Kenya Editors’ Guild, Kenya Union of Journalists, KCA and Article 19, International Federation of Journalists and International News Safety Institute. World Association of Newspapers and International Press Institute have also been involved. 

An AWC Features