JOURNALISM : POLITICS AND THE ART OF NAME CALLING.

Your name should be, to you and even others, the sweetest and most important sound in any language. In journalism, names are very important, and as journalists we are always encouraged to call and refer to every person by their name, ensuring that you also do not misspell their names in writing. An error of names; getting someone’s name wrong, misspelling of names, and any other mistake of names is very unfortunate, and media houses must correct such errors and sometime publish an apology. That is how important names are. In politics however, that may really not be the case. Every election year, we are always treated to humor and a war of words when candidates attack each other’s political positions. Political platforms quickly turn into a stage for jokes, bantering, and for trading insults among its participants, and it is a tradition anywhere in the world. It is so interesting to listen to the pitch and catchy phrases used by politicians in such platforms, and it even gets funnier and most memorable how they enthusiastically and confidently trade names among themselves, funny names.

The expectation for a political campaign period that exhibit mutual respect among players, responsible management of differences and loads of necessary compromise is never the case. That has since been replaced by a political culture that is dominated by vicious attacks on motives, at the expense of reasoned debate. What is instead of name-calling and politics of trading insults, politicians should criticize policies? These slanderous claims against each other are just ludicrous and unhelpful more so in clarifying policy questions voters must understand. The time for campaigns I believe is that time when politicians should explain policies instead of trading names, but still they enjoy it at the expense of explaining their policies and all the plans they have for the people and the nation. Name-calling however is a nature of politics, and it is like politicians cannot do without it. They resort to it during their campaigns and or on public events with the intention of gaining advantage over an opponent or defending themselves. It gets more entertaining when it is among the presidential hopefuls and their supporters, as they get immersed in these blazing verbal battles. It is even more of interest when it is amongst people within the same political affiliation. This art of name-calling and nasty exchanges that dominate political discussions along the campaign trail only reveal nothing except the mean nature of the game, but then, the assumption always is that the more names you have the more celebrated you are by the public; it is a sign that people love you to give you so many names or that your opponents are so much worried about you that they try bringing you down with mere names. And if you do not end up with a nickname at the end of your political career, then you may not be considered a successful politician because you will be forgotten as quickly as your name, and the names given to you are no longer in the lips of citizens. During such period and sometimes forever politicians have to bear monikers, good and bad, attached to their names. We still remember the owner of the name ‘mapambano’, and all agree that it can easily be associated to the late Senator Otieno Kajwang’. In the last general elections we had the ‘Manzi wa Nai’ which was a name used by the women representative to gain advantage over opponents. We have always had ‘Sonko’ and we cannot forget that the Nairobi politics once had a ‘Kaa ngumu’. We still remember ‘Nyayo’, and who can ever forget ‘Baba Jimmy’? It will take so so many years to forget who the names ‘Baba’, ‘Tingatinga’, ‘Agwambo’, and most recently, ‘Jamaa wa vitendawili’ belong to. We also do have a ‘Hustler’ in the scene, and the political ‘Messi’ also known as ‘MaDvDs’ by others. And what of the ‘Watermelon’, we know whose name is that, yea? Well, we still expect to hear of so many more coming up more so as we near the campaign period. These bitter tones depicted by politicians over the campaign period always dissolve into smiles and hugs on a shared podium, an indication of no love lost among the politicians. This is when the winners of an election, those who played their wit in name-calling so well are finally announced as the winners of an election process, which also included the period of name-calling campaigns. They played their wit so well to emerge winners; maybe they applied the art of name-calling to gain advantage over their opponents, or maybe they were the victims of name-calling, with so many names attached to them. In either case, they are always the genuine winners.