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Leveraging your skills to stay relevant

assurances of their safety while at their destinations. The Survey also noted that most travellers fear getting quarantined or ‘locked down’ in a particular destination. Traveller re-assurance therefore will be a critical game-changer in a post-COVID-19 era.

Further to the already existing inward solutions currently being explored, the vigorous “Tembea Kenya” campaigns by Magical Kenya as well as the “Zuru na KWS” campaign by the Kenya Wildlife Service are examples of well-packaged ideas which, when empowered with the right buy-ins, are poised to build the sustainability of the tourism industry beyond this and similar disruptions.

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Out-of- the box thinking will be critical in ensuring all players in the tourism sector (both consumers and suppliers), benefit. The pandemic has taught us that the sector is both extremely vital and vulnerable, and therefore the success of its recovery strategies depends on a collective effort from all of us. Inward solutions therefore need to be underscored for future economic posterity.

The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine has been an instrumental step in re-building the confidence of travellers to venture beyond their homes and discover new experiences. With a successful roll-out of an effective immunization plan, the tourism sector is likely to be among the first sectors to make a speedy recovery with domestic tourism becoming a primary market for the sustenance of the industry. Similarly, the roll-out of the vaccine in many countries across the world will also enable the restoration of external tourism.

By Ruth Mbugua

As a budding PR professional, I have always had a passion for growth, keen on networking and learning from the right people and upskilling. However, often times I feel lost and confused in between communication and PR. How then do I position myself in this fast-paced industry?

Leverage your strengths

We have the privilege of being well versed with management of digital channels. Devise strategies that will help manage brands online. Also networks with online influencers will help you maintain your online brand image.

Depersonalization

More often than not we take offence when our ideas don’t get adopted even when we believe they are brilliant. Learn to depersonalize from your work. Remove yourself from the process. It’s not you being edited, it’s your content. It’s not your creativity or ideas being questioned, it’s whether it’s a good fit or not for the brand. Remember, we all have different experiences and perspectives. Take it as an opportunity to learn and get feedback.

Network

As you start out, you may not have the relevant networks especially in the media. Take this opportunity to learn from your seniors and build relevant networks and strategic relationships. Relationship building is a process and it takes time.

Be open-minded

Take time to learn before specializing in any area. PR is a dynamic field. Be open minded and have the willingness to learn new things. Learn from everyone, even those you think are junior to you. Take time to understand and acclimate yourself to the organisation’s raison Technology cannot be left behind in this endeavour either, and tourism industry players will need to consider investing in, among other hi-tech approaches, the Virtual Reality (VR) space. VR offers a user a taste-before-youpurchase experience thereby increasing traveller’s appetites to resume travel once restrictions are completely eased. If tapped into, VR will undoubtedly enhance a potential traveller’s incentive to visit a destination, which will in turn translate into higher bookings.

Though recovery will undoubtedly take some time, with the right measures implemented and effective information dissemination, the tourism industry is sure to bounce back bigger, better and more resilient.

d’etre. This will help you become a strategic communicator.

Upskill

Build your writing and communication skills through consistent practise. Read more, write more to become better.

Create value

One of the things I wish I learnt earlier was demonstrating the business value of public relations. Learn to be strategic in public relations. Many times, sectors such as marketing, communications and public relations are viewed as expenditure to the business. However, you need to be able to show how PR contributes positively to the business.

Eye for detail

As a PR person you have to be very detail-oriented. There is nothing more embarrassing than mistakes in publicly released information such as wrong client name or error in figures. Always have a second and third pair of eyes to review your work.

Your possibilities are limitless. The ball is in your court and you have been granted the resources you need to grow in the profession and claim your place in the industry. Own it.

Stop boardroom sycophancy

By Christopher Ngolo Okinda,

With the advancement of technology and the increased misconceptions about the role of Public Relations, there is need for young practioners in the industry to lead and guide the profession to its roots.

The noble name of public relations has waned over time and the establishment of the Society is to work towards managing and enhancing the reputation of the discipline. The journey has already started and there is light at the end of the tunnel. The young professionals must continue with the journey to the decision-making table.

The Public Relations profession started losing its grip when organisations with fully functioning departments started outsourcing for the same services. How do you outsource for services you are capable of offering? This is where Public Relations Agencies started becoming popular thus killing the confidence and the profession of those working in those organisations.

Poor management skills and in some instances, members reducing themselves to minute writers and personal assistants to the bosses- even when the boss has an officer assigned as a personal assistant- has also caused the current state where Public Relations practioners carry notebooks and speeches for the boss. That is not our place as professionals.

In addition, poor strategies and lack of communication policies that guide most of the institutions, increased encroachment by media personalities as well as poor writing skills are some of the reasons we are where we are today as a profession. The young professionals are challenged to change this narrative to bring out the desired respect to the profession.

PR Professionals in Power

Currently, we only have a few public relations practioners in Kenya holding key positions. Just to mention but a few is the PRSK’s President Dr. Wilfred Marube, who also doubles up as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the The Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (KEPROBA),, Dr. Alfred Mutua the Governor of Machakos County, Dr. Ezekiel Mutua, CEO Kenya Film and Classification Board among others, who have set the pace.

Young PR professionals need to realize that the journey to the top is not easy but through working within the principle objectives of Public Relations, the journey towards the decision-making table becomes achievable.

Public relations’ unique function in any organization is to help the organization develop and maintain relationships with all of its key publics and stakeholders by effectively communicating with these groups. Communication is key in maintaining a satisfactory, long-term, trusting relationships with publics and stakeholders.

Basic Technical Expertise

Young practitioners must realize that their careers begin as communication technicians. This role requires executing strategies with the communication tactics of news releases, employee newsletters, position papers, media placements, website content, speeches, blogs, and social media messaging. Practitioners in this role are usually not involved in defining problems and developing solutions but base their tactics on the technical skill of writing.

This is experience is similar to the role a doctor performs to a patient. One becomes an authority on a particular industry, problem, or type of public relations and is given the primary responsibility to handle this function as a consultant or with little input or participation by other senior management.

Strategic Thinking in PR

The young Practioner must think like a Public Relations Manager who is involved in the strategic thinking of an organisation and must be able to conduct research and measurement and share data that informs better decisions for managing relationships with key publics. on the efforts of the organisation that contribute to the mutually beneficial relationships that help it achieve its bottom-line goals. These efforts are not limited to communication strategies, but include monitoring an organisation’s external environment, scanning for issues that might impact the organisation, and helping it adapt to the needs of its stakeholders.

Learning From the Experts

Belmont University, associate professor and Chair of the department of public relations, Bonnie Riechert, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA once said, “Learn to write — please! Be willing to start at the bottom, just get in there and do some work. Learn and look for opportunities that present themselves where you can grow. While I never strayed too far in my 34-year career, it was definitely not a straight line to where I am. I took chances, pay cuts, risks. It’s not always easy, but it is worth it in the end.” Young professionals can learn from this and better the profession.

The young Practioner must equate themselves to important contributors of any business. Don’t see public relations only as organising media events or talking to journalists, but as a critical role within the organisation. Know your business numbers; be quick to respond to crisis.

To remind all, the PR function must be present on the decision-making table to offer strategic advice and stop the “yes boss” mentality for the profession to regain its glory. Our young professionals can make this change possible.

The writer is a Communication Assistant at GDC

Bastion for PRSK prowess

By Mutethia Wa Mberia

Building of a corporate entity requires strategic foresight and commitment from all with a stake. Indeed, duty bears must demonstrate willingness to subdue individual interest to that of the corporate institution for survival of the organisation they lead.

Institutions like Public Relations Society of Kenya (PRSK) assume this prism with a knack for institutional capacity, espoused in its governance organs and membership. In delivering on respective responsibilities, we must be always orient our zeal and energies in a manner that transcends our time. Any corporate worth its course must have institutionalized structures that pervade its operations. These includes governance strategies; internal policies framework; administrative guidelines; internal and external stakeholder engagement models; risk management mechanisms and importantly, succession plan outlook.

Of all these structures, the human capital factor is critical in delivery of the current focus and shaping the future of an institution. Young professionals in PRSK just like any other institution must always be a question of focus and reflection. The modern time professional have a dynamic wiring with flair of creativity, focus and aspirations. Therefore, PRSK should always review its tact to be in sync with not only this very fluid pool but also the dynamics the PR professional is portending to assume in near future. Periodic sharing of resonating messages to the youthful should consistently be undertaken by PRSK not only to assure the youthful professionals but also a demonstration of their import and value to the PR arena.

Early talent nurturing

There seem to be “late focus” and linkage between PR professionals with schooling. It is appreciable that disciple choices and persuasion is assumed right from early ages of scholarship. As PRSK, there may be need to broaden the scope and tailormake engagement programmes right from secondary schools and graduate to higher learning institutions. This is pivotal in ensuring that the profession does not only have numbers but have professionally grounded practitioners that are able to shape and influence future responsibilities.

Youth leagues

To upscale the current PRSK’s programmes targeted to students pursuing PR/ Communication related courses of study, as a professional body, a creation of “league of PR professionals” drawn from different colleges and universities should be considered. The criteria for identification and collating of such a list should be based on a wellthought selection process. For instance, there could be a clustering of regions where best students in PR would be selected through a competitive process to form regional PR youth leagues attendant to the region. Such select pool from different regions would be consolidated to form the national leagues. In such leagues, the PRSK gospel will not only be known but reach and be appreciated across the regions through such outfits.

Trainee programmes

Many accomplished professionals in various specialization have honed their skills and eventually ascended to career echelons courtesy of trainee programmes. Borrowing from this cue, a robust trainee programme steered by PRSK can be instituted. Through established partnerships locally and internationally, resources may be realized to run to fruition such a programme to ensure a critical mass of expertise now and in future. In this programme, professional exposure to the budding professionals can also be realized through programmes like exchange missions, study tours, crossdisciplinary symposia within and without the country.

It is in recognition, designating and creatively creating opportunities for the young professionals that there will be a mutual gain and tapping into the potential that the youth professional present for the growth of PRSK. In well-structured youth professional programmes, the body will cement and stamp itself as an authoritative sustainable body beyond Kenyan borders. Importantly, having empowered a generation and left a mark of posterity, PRSK will have lived to the larger call of serving humanity.

Prof Wajackoyah: I became an undertaker in order to earn a living in the United Kingdom

He doesn’t subscribe to any religious group yet he is as spiritual as one can be and believes in putting God first over everything and; is also the senior-most priest of Hare Krishna

We usually create a road-map for our lives but more often than not things don’t go our way. You want to be a doctor and end up being a professional in another field. C’est la vie, as the French say for a man who rose from a street child to a night guard to a grave digger. Indeed, life has served Prof George Luchiri Wajackoyah a mixture of the best and worst in equal measure.

The 61-year-old celebrity lawyer became a street child at 16 years after his parents divorced. This, he says, has contributed to what he is today. Growing up without guidance from his father, especially, punctured his ego as a man. “I feel like a stranger to myself because I don’t trust people around me,” he says.

That he is poised and punctilious is a glaring fact to anyone who walks into his office located on the posh and affluent Karen area. Exquisite and rich taste is a perfect descriptor to this man who has a striking semblance to CT Muga who isn’t related to him. He is known for his love for watches and has a collection ranging from rose gold to green and purple gold. He has an enviable physique for a man his age yet he doesn’t work out neither does he diet. He dons a beard, which gives him a vague resemblance to Wole Soyinka. “This runs in our family, all of us are lean bodied and grow beards from an early age,” he says showing us a photo of his athletic son who is with Arsenal Junior Academy.

A linguist par excellence, Prof Wajackoyah speaks 11 languages including local dialects and does tap dancing; which is predominantly Spanish. When we asked him to say something in fluent Swahili he surprised us by delivering it in an impressive coastal lilt. He is as comfortable in Karen as he is in Kibera. He sometimes boards matatus and goes to feast with the youth in slums as he tries to understand their plight.

Guest of the State and Seeking Asylum

In the 1990s, he had to seek an asylum in the United Kingdom after he was arrested only to be rescued by Americans. “Life overseas isn’t what we think. It is tough. From financial challenges to racism, the list is endless,” he says pensively. He had to wash dead bodies and work as a grave digger to make ends meet and finance his He recounts how traumatic his first time handling a dead body was. “I couldn’t sleep,” he says. But ironically, he says, he found peace and comfort even though he resorted to drinking to escape from the reality of his odd jobs.

Most Learned Friend?

Many argue that he is the most educated, or if you may, learned lawyer in the country with reports of him having 16 degrees a far spread rumour. “It’s absurd to actually think someone can have that many degrees,” he quips. He had to push himself to attain as many degrees as he could because he couldn’t fathom the thought of going back to where he came from. He is currently juggling both work and school and doing his Postgraduate Diploma in Migration at the University of Nairobi and at the same time his 2nd PhD in Law from Walden University, Minneapolis. With more than eight law degrees from US and UK and Advanced Diploma in French from the University of Burundi, one would understand why the streets purport that he has 16 degrees. He is an alumnus of University of Wolverhampton (Bachelor of Law with Honors); School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (Master of Laws); University of Warwick (Master of Laws), Westminster University (LPC), World University Service, London (International Refugee Law), University of Baltimore, Maryland (Master of Law), American Heritage University, California (PhD honaris causa); University of Walden (PhD candidate - PhD in Criminal Justice and Public Policy (immigration) and University of Nairobi/ Maastricht (Migration). He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the United States International University (USIU) and visiting academic to many universities in the US.

Friends with Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Prof Wajackoyah is one man who has made friends in high and low places alike. From Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the United States Congress, Magic Johnson, Lord Popat of the House of the Lords, Prophet TB Joshua, Lt. Governor of New York and his former classmate, Tundu Lisu to the farmer in Matungu; he knows not about labels. To him, if he can help, he does it whole heartedly. “If I can help someone move from 20 to 50, why not?” he asks.

He says he vowed to make sure he leaves an impact in the society by helping as many people through education due to the childhood he had. He has taken so many young lads and lasses through school because that is the only way he can give

back to the society that made him think education was a luxury. He is as selfless as he is altruistic. “The only way you can fulfil God’s purpose on earth is if you leave better than you found it. Prof Maathai will be remembered for her quest to make the world greener and one day, my contribution will be footnoted in history books,” he says. He believes in leaving the camera at home when helping the needy, a debate that is alive on social media.

Presidency

The alma matter of The University of Baltimore, Maryland has passion for change and he does it in his own little way. In 2017, he teamed up with Abduba Dida under Tunza Alliance to take a stab at the Presidency. They were, however, unsuccessful. He is the proprietor of the Roots Party through which he started the #ShaketheTreeMovement that has become popular both at home and abroad and is now in 134 countries and counting. He also played a pivotal role in the just concluded Matungu by-election and he believes he is the ‘bastion of luhya unity’ now.

Wealthy clientele

His client list comprises Presidents, revolutionists, most influential politicians as well as some of the most controversial people. He represented the Akasha brothers, musician Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba popularly known as Koffi Olomide when he allegedly assaulted a woman at JKIA. Others are Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lisu, Uganda’s Stella Nyanzi and even Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. “All I want is to see justice served,” he says. “Sometimes that means working with people who have already been prosecuted by the court of public opinion and already given a guilty verdict,” he adds.

Balancing Work and Family

He acknowledges that he wouldn’t be able to build a successful career without the support and blessing of his family, especially his wife. His wife, an African American, has walked his professional and political journey with him. He says she challenges him despite the fact that they live in different countries. “She will ask why I chose A and not B and make me see things from a different perspective. And that’s why I love our marriage. I fall in love anew every single day,” he says blushingly. He opines that understanding your priorities saves one a lot of trouble.

Subscription to Religion

He credits his success to God. One would think he subscribes to a certain religion, but he believes spirituality doesn’t have to be tied to religion. He is a member of the Church of Scientology, a senior priest of Hare Krishna, has read the Quran and the Bible from cover to cover, has done Buddhism too. “I was curious to understand if the God of Muslims is the same as the one for Christians. And if we serve the same God then it would be discriminatory to think there is any religion that is superior to the other,” he asserts. He believes that the African culture is rich and superior.

Wanted dead or alive

There is a bounty on his head in certain countries because he represents people who are believed to be enemies of the State. His quest for justice has seen him earn respect and contempt alike. “There are countries I can’t step foot in because of my clients,” he says. He stands by his choice to represent those clients and holds no regrets. He acknowledges that this has earned him enemies in high places but his conviction remains unwaivered. “My conscience is clear and I sleep well at night, that’s what matters,” he adds. He also has taken some countries to International Criminal Court (ICC) because of their blatant disregard to human rights.

Police support

That he has supported many youth through the Police Academy is a well known fact. As police officer in 1990s, he understands all too well the challenges they face. “From their pay to their housing. A lot has to be done to improve their situation,” he asserts. He notes that the discipline he has today is courtesy of the training he got in the police school. “We need to encourage the Police and not ridicule them,” he adds.

Violence Against Women

Prof Wajackoyah believes that women are to be loved and cared for. Violence against women shouldn’t be tolerated. “Men who raise their hands on women are cowards,” he says.

Want to be a good communicator? You must retool

By Lillian Kimeto

Communication is a vital part of policy processes in a functional government and in order to reach citizens easily, there is a case for methodologies that are in tandem with reaching a wider audience. Therefore Government communicators need to bring their training and expertise in analysing the audience, creating and adjusting messages effectively. For this to succeed, they need data and insights which can be used to understand the opinions and perceptions of those to whom government programmes and projects are targeting.

Policy maker can also use communication to understand the problems, challenges and needs of the citizens the project is targeting. This of course leads improved the interaction as it allows feedback from the citizens. If citizens understand what is being done, you achieve much more.

One would ask, what exactly is development for communication? In the Kenyan context, the government, private entities retain communication specialists who play different roles to communicate development programmes and projects. These practitioners range from photographers, Public Relations practitioners, content writers, journalists and graphic designers. However, these practitioners are retained only for tactical and operational purposes and only very few sit on strategic meetings. What this means is that development communication is not integrated into the end to end of project conceptualization and implementation. engagement, public participation and mass communication of development milestones in Kenya. Therefore, there is need to put mechanisms for retooling communications professionals, journalists and other media practitioners. There is also need to strengthen training institutions and think through the quality of the curriculum in addition to the government of Kenya Communication Policy and a legal framework to guide government communications.

A development strategy that uses communication approaches can reveal peoples underlying attitudes and also helps people to acquire new knowledge. Therefore there is need term development to connote human development through creating social and economic opportunities.

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