A Trip to The Nation

Today we made a visit to The Daily Nation, which is the biggest newspaper in Kenya. This was all made possible by Randy Smith- the Kansas City Star editor who spent a month in Nairobi last year working at The Nation. There was more security at The Nation than I've ever seen at a newspaper. The Nation's building sits right in downtown Nairobi and hosts other businesses in their building- one being the Nairobi Stock Exchange. We were escorted up to the newsroom, getting a full tour of the facility before meeting Joseph Odindo, the managing editor at The Nation. He welcomed us into his office and told us to feel at home at The Nation. He's setting me up with a desk, computer and full access to the Nation's resources- which is pretty great! The Nation runs a training center in their building for up and coming journalists from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Joseph wants me to talk to the journalists currently taking the training class about my journalism curriculum at Missouri and about journalism in general back in the states. He said he also wants to try and set up in exchange program with the University of Missouri and The Nation because we both agreed that it's very beneficial for journalists to gain perspective by seeing other places and other kinds of journalism. After all- that's what I'm doing!

A few interesting facts I learned about The Nation: (This will probably only interest those of you who are journalists)
- The Nation's main office is in Nairobi and they have bureaus in several cities throughout Kenya. However they only have one printing press, which is in Nairobi. So each morning (by the time the papers are finished printing) an employee has to drive a set of papers to each of the bureaus which can be as far as a 7 hour drive. Then that same employee drives back to Nairobi the same day to do it all over again the next day!
- The Nation has very few subscriptions. Most of their papers are sold off of the street.
- Instead of calling it a copy desk, they call it a subs desk.

And one other interesting fact I learned from Joseph: Kenyans distinguish between their home and their house. There actually was a court case about the difference between the two! A Kenyan's home is where they are from, where they were born and where there family lives. Their house is the place they live in currently. Joseph explained that most Kenyans are not from Nairobi and will not call Nairobi their home even though they may have lived in the city in their house for most of their life for schooling, work. etc.

I'm really excited to get to know some Kenyan journalists and try to learn as much as possible from them during my stay here.

Tomorrow, Michael and I head to Nyumbani again because tomorrow is a public holiday so all of the children will be there since schools won't be in session. Until then...