The Media Coverage of The Hague Trials and the Construction of New Ethnic Subjectivities in Kenya

Abstract

This paper examines the Daily Nation’s coverage of the ongoing Hague trials involving six suspects of the 2007 postelection violence in Kenya. The paper uses qualitative content analysis to investigate how the Hague trials were handled by the newspaper and whether the coverage encouraged peaceful interethnic dialogue necessary for reconstructing the ethnic political culture in Kenya to avoid unnecessary conflicts. The paper concludes that the Daily Nation deliberately constructed peace discourses in its coverage of the trials and was supportive of human rights and democracy by virtue of its reputation as the champion of national interests and therefore citizens’ rights