Patrick Gathara

Nairobi

Senior Editor for Inclusive Storytelling at The New Humanitarian

Inveterate complainer, armchair activist, keyboard warrior, cartoonist, writer, columnist. Snr Editor for Inclusive Storytelling at The New Humanitarian.

Articles

Il patto del silenzio tra il Kenya e i militari

1 week ago | internazionale.it | Patrick Gathara

Il 28 aprile le autorità keniane hanno vietato la proiezione a Nairobi di un documentario della Bbc sul ruolo dell’esercito nell’uccisione dei manifestanti che l’anno scorso protestavano contro il presidente William Ruto. Non è stato solo un atto di censura.
Kenya's pact of silence with its military is breaking

2 weeks ago | aljazeera.com | Patrick Gathara

Senior Editor for Inclusive Storytelling at The New Humanitarian When the Kenyan government blocked the public screening of a BBC documentary investigating the military's role in the killing of protesters, it was about more than censorship. It was about protecting a decades-old pact - a silent agreement between the military, the state, the media, and the public: the army stays out of overt politics, and in return, no one looks too closely at what it's doing.
Kenya’s pact of silence with its military is breaking - Patrick Gathara

2 weeks ago | qoshe.com | Patrick Gathara
Decolonise How? Who owns the story?

3 weeks ago | thenewhumanitarian.org | Patrick Gathara

Republish this article Editor’s note: This column, Decolonise How? charts efforts towards more ethical reporting of humanitarian crises.
The end of Western values

1 month ago | thenewhumanitarian.org | Patrick Gathara

Republish this article My late grandmother, Eunice Nyawira, was not a big fan of the idea of “Western values”. She couldn’t get her head around it. A peasant farmer in central Kenya born at the dawn of colonialism, she had seen her share of hardships, including food shortages that at times necessitated a resort to Western-provided food aid. However, she fiercely resisted the notion that this form of charity was something different than the community practices she had witnessed in her youth,...
Decolonise How? To change humanitarian aid, we need to change media coverage too

1 month ago | thenewhumanitarian.org | Patrick Gathara

Republish this article Editor’s note: This column, Decolonise How? charts efforts towards more ethical reporting of humanitarian crises.
Reform Aid? Beware the Orphan-Crushing Machine

1 month ago | theelephant.info | Patrick Gathara

In 2020, a now defunct Twitter account posted this: “Every heartwarming human interest story in America is like, ‘He raised $20,000 to keep 200 orphans from being crushed in the orphan-crushing machine’ and then never asks why an orphan-crushing machine exists or why you’d need to pay to prevent it from being used.”It sure sounds like they could be describing the humanitarian system, doesn’t it?
Elite self-preservation disguised as compromise

1 month ago | aljazeera.com | Patrick Gathara

The recent MoU between Raila's and Ruto's parties follows a long tradition of intractable enemies coming together to get rich, block reform and survive in Kenyan politics. Senior Editor for Inclusive Storytelling at The New Humanitarian The handshake is an honoured tradition of Kenyan politics. It signifies the coming together of seemingly intractable enemies into an agreement to share the spoils rather than fight over them.
Kenya’s handshake politics: Elite self-preservation disguised as compromise - Patrick Gathara

1 month ago | qoshe.com | Patrick Gathara
Reform aid? Beware the orphan-crushing machine

1 month ago | thenewhumanitarian.org | Patrick Gathara

Republish this article Ever heard of the orphan-crushing machine?