OBAMA, GRANNIES AND GATEKEEPING DEFICIENCY DEMONS

Kenya is preparing to host a very important visitor. US president Barack Obama is coming home. And the local media is seizing this moment to churn out copious stories, disguised as providing extensive coverage. Not surprisingly, editorial lapses continue to amuse and astonish, as gatekeeping deficiency demons torment the audience.

Every angle is being explored, and every exploration is being angled, for the media to feel it has exhaustively covered this historic visit.

But the pressure of seizing the moment can lead to unintended editorial embarrassments, especially if the focus is on sideshows, and not the substance of the US president's visit.

So, a story is told of how elderly women are trying very hard to learn Engish, pardon me, English...now wait for the clincher:

'...to be able to communicate with President Obama'

At what point will this happen, during the visit of the US president?

Even if Obama makes a dramatic unscheduled visit to his ancestral home of Kogelo, in western Kenya, will the same grannies be guaranteed to be at a tobacco sniff distance, to converse with the most powerful leader on the planet?

Granted, Kogelo has been receiving a lot of foreign tourists, after one of its sons began occupying the White House.

Naturally then, that would have been a better way of highlighting the need for local grannies to learn Engish...sorry...English.

Hey, members of the press, there's an old rat, (last sighted near Burma market), which lost all its whiskers, while foraging at the then Cameo Cinema, that now has an uncanny resemblance, to the sole of the shoe, worn by a neighbour, of Barack Obama Senior.

Sic 'em...news hounds!