A half century of the Daily NationA half century of the Daily Nation One of the earliest components

A half century of the Daily Nation



One of the earliest components of what eventually came to be known as
the Aga Khan Development Network resulted from Mawlana Hazar Imam’s
purchase in 1959 of a Kenyan Kiswahili daily called Taifa Leo.
This was followed in the next year by the founding of the English
language Daily Nation.
Stan Denman, Managing Director of Nation Printers and Publishers (now
NMG), with Mawlana Hazar Imam and Vin Duncan, Production Manager of
Nation Newspapers in 1981. Photo: Courtesy of Nation Media Group

Speaking in 2005 at the opening of the International Press Institute World
Congress that was held in Kenya, Hazar Imam noted that, “At that
time, many African nations had freshly emerged from colonial rule, and I
believed that good journalism could play a critical role in their
development.” He had strong support from young African politicians in
the pursuit of this objective.
The newspaper business in Kenya at that time was dominated by the
colonial press, which did not represent the interests and aspirations of
the local people. There were some very definite innovations that the Nation
introduced into Kenya’s mainstream English language press. While not
neglecting international news, it brought national reporting to the
fore. Its stories were presented in accessible writing and its format
allowed for easy navigation through the contents. Unlike the broadsheet
size of its main competitor, the East African Standard, the Nation
adopted a smaller size which made it easier to handle.
True to its mission of helping the newly independent country discover
its civic voice, it also employed many African journalists. The paper
was soon to be edited and managed by African staff. Readers noticed the
difference in style and content, and the Nation emerged as the
most popular daily in Kenya. However, reaching out to a mass readership
did not mean that journalistic standards were compromised.
Mawlana Hazar Imam has expressed strong views on journalism, which
are underpinned by an ethical framework. Whereas he is convinced that
journalism is a force for development and that it has an important role
in ensuring issues affecting public interests are discussed openly, he
said that:

“...journalists must move beyond a primarily adversarial
relationship with those they write about. To be sure, the role of the
independent critic can be a vital role – but it is not the only role. If
the dominating assumption of media is that the rest of society is up to
no good, that the best journalism is what many call ‘gotcha’
journalism, then the media will forfeit a more constructive and nobler
role.”

A woman reads Taifa Leo, the Nation Media Group’s Kiswahili-language
daily. Photo: Courtesy of Nation Media Group

Hazar Imam has been supportive of the freedom of the press, but has
cautioned that it not be used to shield the media from a sense of social
accountability. He has pointed out that the journalists who are
underpaid and the media owners whose institutions are financially
unstable can become vulnerable to corruption.
“Our experience with the Nation newspapers in Kenya has
demonstrated that journalistic improvement goes hand in hand with
financial health,” noted Mawlana Hazar Imam at the Commonwealth Press Union Conference held in South
Africa in 1996. Hazar Imam draws a clear distinction between the
financial health of newspapers and profit-driven media which often are
sensationalistic. The reduction of news to entertainment and
exploitation of ethnic and religious differences in society can have
very negative consequences.
The Nation has made systematic investments in the training
of its staff and upgrading of its facilities to ensure that it delivers
good content in the most effective manner. It also has sought to upgrade
the skills of its management and has instituted an in-house educational
programme for journalists. The
Aga Khan University will be establishing a Graduate School of Media and
Communications in East Africa to enhance such training.
One of the key features of the Nation has been its
determination to remain at the forefront of media technology in order to
deliver a good product. Hazar Imam noted that “The Nation was
in the 1960s among the very first newspapers outside North America to
embrace computerised typesetting.” By the mid-1990s, it was a leader in
moving into multimedia technologies and making available its
publications globally through the Internet.
Mawlana Hazar Imam gathered with management and editorial staff at the
Nation newsroom in 1981. Photo: Courtesy of Nation Media Group

The newspaper has expanded into the Nation Media Group (NMG), the
largest media company in the East African region. NMG has a suite of
dailies and weeklies and runs radio and television stations in Kenya,
Uganda and Tanzania. The Nation Digital Division is responsible for the
Group’s Internet and mobile telecommunications activities. NMG’s shares
are publicly traded on the Nairobi stock exchange and are owned by
thousands of local shareholders.
The Nation Media Group is also part of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic
Development (AKFED), a unique development agency that operates on a
commercial, for-profit basis, but which reinvests any profits it
generates into further development work. AKFED is dedicated to
promoting private initiatives and building economically sound
enterprises in the developing world — and the Nation is a part
of that story.
At its fiftieth birthday, the Nation is the flagship of a
very successful enterprise to enable Africans to have a say in their own
societies’ development.