Larry Madowo is a household name in the Kenyan Media industry today, thanks to his genius in the field of journalism. He is famously known, apart from presenting news on NTV, as the master of The Trend, a famous TV show that gets even carousers abandoning their favourite joints on Friday evenings to rush home and catch up with what Larry has to offer. Those who don’t leave their partying places will be heard commanding the management to tune in to NTV especially as from 10 in the evening and pause all other systems playing as they want to hear what Larry has for that night. The Trend is as famous as Winston Churchill’s 1945 speech.
Apart from the Trend, Madowo is a seasoned interviewer who hosts guests on NTV, especially when pertinent issues have to be put clear or need to be expanded and expounded for the masses to have a glimpse of the reality in ambiguous situations.
He has hosted high profile individuals in the Kenyan political landscape, music and from other sectors. The latest to go through Larry’s hard and straight-forward kind of interviews were Nandi MP Alfred Keter and his counterpart, nominated MP, Soni Birdi.
The two had caused a fracas at the Gilgil Weighbridge where they stormed two weeks ago and harassed officers manning the weighbridge after they had impounded a track believed to belong to the family of the nominated MP and which had flouted the basic highway rules.
Keter could be heard in a video clip threatening the officers with an immediate sack as he dropped the names of President Uhuru Kenyatta, State House comptroller and other high profile officials in the government. The MP also abused the officers in the clip as he reminded them that it is people like him (MPs) who make and break the law when and as they want.
This is the reason why Larry Madowo hosted the two MPs on NTV and grilled them with straightforward questions that the MPs could not answer correctly.
Many felt Larry had just acted more of an interrogator than an interviewer. They bashed and ridiculed. Others said he had just overstepped his mandate as a journalist. They became keyboard judges who passed their verdict on Larry without fear or what some said is favour.
This to a great extent reminded me that Kenyans, I mean some and especially those who bashed Larry, are more of hypocrites. I had actually forgotten that.
As I walked down the streets of Nairobi, I heard bitter Nairobians criticize Keter and Birdi for their uncalled for actions. Some were holding heated debates over whether the two legislators should be prosecuted for blatantly breaking the law that they were elected and nominated to defend viciously.
For ones I felt like Kenyans had thrashed their hypocrisy and sycophancy for genuine talk and reason. I was overjoyed. I gave my word.
That evening, Larry hosted Keter and Birdi and confronted them with stiff and straight-forward hard questions.
This is the interview that was needed because the legislators had blatantly messed the officers manning the weighbridge intentionally because they felt they were above the law.
Before they appeared on NTV, KTN had hosted them and asked them a number of questions. It was an interview I watched and felt bad after realizing the duo had no remorse even after what they had done thinking it was a secret only to realize someone outsmarted them and captured the altercation at the weighbridge.
Keter in particular said he had nothing to apologize about even after mentioning the name of the head of state and other officials in the Jubilee government wrongfully. This was impunity to say the least.
And when Larry confronted the duo with pertinent questions, Kenyans were on his neck again.
The MPs appeared to evade questions which they were required to answer. I don’t know whether those bashing Larry saw that. The two actually made the interview look like it was an interrogation by CID.
If you have answers for what you did and you think it is right, why evade the necessary questions that you should answer correctly and straightforward? That is where they got it wrong and forced Larry to repeat the same. That repetition of the same question more than twice is what made the interview look like an interrogation. And to be realistic and a bit humane, there is no way the interview would be a success when someone is evading pertinent questions. Even in exams you fail if you evade a question that you have answers to.
Majority of us didn’t see that and that is why we were quick to think Larry had forgotten the basic rules of Journalism: Fairness, right to reply, accountability and accuracy.
Was Larry fair? This is the question many are still asking. I beg to answer on his behalf. Yes he was.
Look, when Larry asks Keter, did you abuse the officers at the bridge? And Keter evades answering that question and goes on to say, I must fight corruption, who has lost it here? Why would you want Larry to go to the next question when Keter has simply not said yes or no? Don’t you think for once Larry was compelled to repeat the same question? And don’t you think for once at the end of the interview it would look like an interrogation because of the manner in which the legislators answered the questions?
These are the many questions that we should have asked ourselves before putting a sword on Larry’s neck.
Again, what else did you expect from the legislators except the truth? I believe, strongly, that that is what Larry expected too. He therefore was justified to tell it on their faces when they blatantly lied on national TV.
This is just an example of what makes Madowo the kind of man that our media houses need.
A genuine interview does not require people who look like flower girls imported just to spice up the mood of the interviewee.
Larry wrote on his Facebook page as he shared an article he had done on his Daily Nation column said, “If I could do that Alfred Keter interview again, I would do it exactly the same way I did it before. You are just going to have to get used to that.”
Larry was seemingly perturbed by the manner in which Kenyans were hypocritically crucifying him. He went ahead to label us armchair analysts, and he was justified to call us so. After all who are we?
Why would you want Larry to “borrow a leaf from Jeff Koinange, Mark Masai, Julie Gichuru, Debarl Inea, Hussein Mohammed, Yvonne Okwara, blah blah blah?” Why, because they conform to the style you prefer? Because it is the only style you know?
Larry said, “As with all matters of grave public interest, our national pastime shone – armchair analysis.” He simply meant that Kenyans are a pathetic lot when it comes to matters of public interest. Here, we become analysts with views that should be ignored outright. In matters of public interest, we seem not to care so much and those who care are ridiculed and bashed. So was Larry.
But when even the unlikeliest source in Tonny Gachoka, a political analyst, agreed with Larry’s conduct that evening, then it means we need to wake from our slumber and start seeing things from a whole new perspective. Tonny said, “Good interview, it kept to today’s subject. Your guests’ agenda was to try and deflect their conduct.”
As Larry quipped, his intention with hard news interviews is always to challenge viewers, make them a little uncomfortable with what they believe, inform them and provide helpful analysis or on why they should care about whatever subject the media is covering.
This is the sole purpose of a genuine interviewer, and this is what sets Larry apart from the others. He is on a completely different and unique level from the rest.
You are upset with Larry because many political interviews in Kenya tend to be self-serving and do little for public accountability and the audience has been numbed into accepting that.
Larry draws his inspiration from the long serving grand interviewer, Jeremy Paxman, who once famously asked then UK Home Secretary Michael Howard the same question 12 times – “Did you threaten to overrule him?”
This is the way to go. And this is what makes Larry Madowo Kenya’s grand inquisitor.
