Clean Air Catalyst Partner Internews Leads Workshop, Trains 30 Journalists to Report on Air Pollution in Nairobi, Kenya
30 journalists from Nairobi city, Kenya received a certificate of participation on completing a 3-day media workshop on air pollution May 8-10 / Credit: Stella Paul.
By Ivy Murgor, June 28, 2023
At the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, the World Health Organisation presented alarming new data revealing 9 out of 10 people breathe air containing high levels of pollutants and around 7 million people every year die from exposure to fine particles in polluted air. This threat has not abated, cities around the world remain at the frontlines of this interlinked health and climate crisis.
To train journalists on the causes and impacts of air pollution – and how to effectively report on this issue – Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN), a member of Clean Air Catalyst (the Catalyst), organized a three-day media workshop on air pollution in the city of Nairobi from May 8-10.
"Prior to the workshop, we carried out research on the status of air pollution coverage by the Kenya media and found that only a handful of media stories are published on the subject, none of them in-depth in nature,” said Stella Paul, project officer at EJN. “We also found that almost all journalists face multiple challenges while reporting about air pollution, including lack of knowledge and lack of access to resources and data,” she added.
“Clean Air Catalyst’s workshop for journalists in Nairobi was an attempt to address these challenges. Although the training was exclusively for city-based journalists, to make it a truly inclusive opportunity we selected journalists representing the largest media outlets as well as the smallest and least-resourceful outlets from the city’s economically disadvantaged communities.”
Thirty journalists, over half of which were women, representing 29 natinal media outlets from print, radio, TV, and digital media, participated in the training titled “Air Pollution in Nairobi: Sources and Impacts”.
Paul and EJN Project Coordinator Jackie Lidubwi led the workshop as EJN’s media trainers. They were joined by Judey Mutheu, Data and Social Media Expert at Conversation Africa, as well as thematic experts from the Clean Air Catalyst consortium in Kenya, local academia, Nairobi County government and the United States Agency for International Development. They included: George Mwaniki, Head of Air Quality and Purity Munyambu, Gender Specialist, WRI, Africa; Maurice Kavai, Deputy Director, Air Quality and Climate Change, Nairobi City County Government; Betty Mugo, Gender and Inclusive Development Specialist, USAID; Paul Njogu, Lecturer, Jomo Kanyatta University; and Edwin Lubisa, Engineer, AirQo.
The Role of Media
On day one, speakers from the Catalystconsortium shared information about the project and its aim to mobilize clean air solutions to improve air quality in Nairobi. Speakers pointed out that although there has not been enough research done to identify different hotspots in Nairobi yet, there is enough data to prove the city’s current air quality status is far below what WHO recommends as healthy. Speakers called on participants to report on the health impacts of the city’s air quality with a science-backed approach.
In a special address at the workshop, Maureen Njeri, Environment Minister of Nairobi County, emphasized the role of media to help generate public awareness about the city’s growing air pollution. She also called upon the journalists to report on the various efforts that were being taken to improve the quality of the air in the city.
Over the course of the workshop, journalists were trained to find and use data on air quality and climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions in their reporting. They learned ways to make the causes of pollution more visible and to elevate the voices of those who are most affected by it.
Betty Mugo and Purity Munyambu explained how air pollution impacts the health and well-being of disadvantaged communities, such aswomen. Munyambu also led a discussion on how to view and report air pollution stories in a gender-sensitive and gender-balanced manner.
Participants at the workshop / Credit: Stella Paul.
Presentations and Field Trip
On the second day, participants took part of a field trip organized to visit two different locations: Cabanas — one of Nairobi’s busiest public transport hubs and the department of Nuclear Science at the University of Nairobi. At Cabanas, journalists saw how outdoor emissions from various motor vehicles were combined with the smoke coming off charcoal stoves used by street food vendors. “A cookstove is always seen as a source of indoor air pollution, but at busy public places such as Cabanas, frequented daily by thousands of people, the cookstoves are only adding to the already high level of outdoor pollution,” explained Maurice Kavai from the County government.
Later, at the University of Nairobi, journalists were given a presentation by engineers from the Nuclear Energy department on various types of air quality sensors, their functions, costs, effectiveness, accuracies, method of data collection and data analysis. The presentation was followed by a demonstration where journalists could see how the air quality sensors worked on the rooftop of a university building.
For many journalists, it was a unique experience as they had never seen an air quality sensor before and most of them felt that the exposure had helped them understand the intricacies as well as the challenges of monitoring air quality and determining the level of pollution in real-time.
“I thought that pollutant in the air means carbon dioxide. So, the biggest thing I learned was that there are a number of other pollutants in a city, especially particulate matter like PM5 and PM10,” said Emily Chebet, a journalist from Citizen TV.
During their visit to Cabanas, several journalists interacted with roadside vendors, especially women. “I have been to the Cabanas bus terminus several times, but I have never seen it the way I did today. Now I have changed my perception, and see air pollution from a different lens,” said radio journalist Bosco Christopher, who reports for Ruben FM.
Dominic Kirui, a freelance journalist who has reported for several national and international media outlets including Thomson Reuters Foundation and Guardian, noted that the field trip widened his perspective: “Never have I realized how vulnerable the people here are to air pollution. But after the sessions at the workshop yesterday, especially on gender, I am wondering what impact this pollution will leave on the vendors, especially the women who have small children to take care of or children who they may be breastfeeding,” he said.
Journalists interacting with street vendors during their field trip to Cabanas, a transport hub / Credit: Stella Paul.
Generating Story Ideas
On the final day of the workshop, journalists were trained in generating gender-sensitive story ideas about air pollution and its impact on health. Paul led the participants through an exercise to describe the air pollution ecosystem. Working in various groups, journalists listed various air pollution-related elements that they could identify. They then worked together to generate story ideas that included several of these elements.
Robi Chacha, a health journalist from K24TV said that the exercise has helped her think of the “huge possibilities” of reporting on air pollution.
“In the beginning, I thought air pollution reporting would be just about pollution data or technology. But now I see the pollution-health connections and as a health reporter, it is very exciting,” he said.
Also on the final day, Mutheu informed the journalists about various ways to integrate data journalism while reporting on air pollution. She also taught them how to fact-check their stories by using a few open-source and free-to-access digital tools.
After the workshop concluded, participants were informed that EJN would soon announce a story grant call. Before they dispersed, journalists expressed their gratitude to the organizers of the workshop and their resolve to report on air pollution in Nairobi. “This workshop has given us so much knowledge about air pollution, now I can tell the audience what problems I am reporting about and what is the endgame of what you see,” said Jael Opicho, a journalist from Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.
“It is the first time in Nairobi that such a media workshop has been held where journalists could learn about air pollution directly from the leading experts. I think we have been able to trigger a lot of interest in the journalists and we cannot wait to see what stories they will now tell,” said EJN’s Jackie Lidubwi.
Journalists learning to identify diverse elements of the air pollution ecosystem / Credit: Stella Paul.