If Kenya goes up in flames again, fueled by media sensationalism and hate speech as it did in the post-election violence of 2008, blame it on the mainstream radio station owners. Not the reporters.

Two weeks of non-stop interviewing local-language radio stations’ reporters across Nairobi and the Rift Valley (for an Internews training evaluation) left me convinced the vast majority of radio reporters know what they did wrong last time, and would like to do more responsibly, if they are freed from owner interference. And in Kenya, that’s the big IF. Radio, especially local-language radio, is the dominant public source of news and opinions. And in Kenya, politicians overwhelmingly dominate, interfere in, and outright own the majority of radio stations.

Kenya’s fragile coalition government seems to be strangling in its own corruption, reform-avoidance and culture of impunity preliminary to the next elections in 2012, and the political temptation to use and abuse radio airwaves again to incite tribal animosities for vote-getting is considered very high.

The year-long Internews conflict sensitivity training program for vernacular radio reporters is the biggest of several international initiatives strengthening grass roots reporting and legitimizing conflict reconciliation in news stories and in the public consciousness. But will the grass roots flourish and sustain peacebuilding and democratization in Kenya, or will political interference in journalism poison the principles and standards again? It will take more than just fine-tuning of the media environment and legal infrastructure to maintain Kenya’s status as a beacon of economic and democratic development on the continent.

- Ross Howard