This Twitter Account Is Calling Out Kenyan Manels

In Kenya, the face of an expert is a man. Analysis of different issues, such as politics and education, and even issues that specifically affect women, is often relegated to men. This reality is perhaps most apparent when one looks at the myriad of all-male expert panels — or “manels,” as they are often referred to — on TV and at conferences.

On February 4, a Pan-African feminist lawyer (who would like to remain anonymous) decided she was tired of seeing manels day after day on Kenyan TV stations. “In January, I spent a lot of time at a place where the TV was always tuned to KTN news, and while manels have always riled me, seeing them in my face all the time nudged me to do something.”

Inspired by Twitter accounts like Counting Dead Women Kenya, which is dedicated to mapping and documenting femicides, she started Manel Watch Kenya (MWK). MWK is a Twitter account through which this lawyer documents Kenyan panels that exclude women, and calls out their organizers. Since MWK’s inception in February, the account has recorded instances of manels almost every day.

“I try to squeeze in some time in the morning and night to scroll through the Twitter timelines or livestreams of leading media stations,” MWK’s founder told The FBomb. She shares conference posters and other materials that feature only men to give visibility to the exclusion of women from public forums in a way that traditional media has not done and still does not do.

MWK exposes other biases in the selection of experts, too. “Kenyan manels largely center able-bodied, older or middle-aged, straight men from ethnic majority groups and exclude persons with disabilities, young people, queer people, women, and persons from ethnic minority groups,” MWK’s founder explained. MWK’s founder attributes the persistence of manels to broader sentiments of sexism and misogyny in Kenyan culture that lead to a lack of women’s visibility and leadership elsewhere. “Manels are a microcosm of the poor representation of women in politics and governance,” she says.

Many media houses have completely ignored MWK, but one TV host defended himself against MWK’s complaint about his morning panel by saying that women invited to join, “complain it’s too early for them, wifely and motherly duties takes precedence.” MWK’s founder acknowledges that calling out the same media platforms day in and day out can get frustrating. “I have done this for only a few months, and there are times I log in and I feel so frustrated I almost log out,” she said.

Currently, MWK’s founder runs the account by herself and admits that she would love to get volunteers on board, as the work is quite hectic. “Manels abound throughout the day on Kenyan TV stations. I, therefore, miss out on a lot of data since a lot of my attention is on morning shows which tweet more consistently,” she laments. While the work is hectic, the page has benefitted from crowdsourcing. Kenyan feminists who support MWK often tag the page to posts with details of manels on conferences, TV stations, and even governmental committees. She also receives support from similar accounts like @ManelWatchUS and @ManelWatchAU (Australia). In the future, MWK’s founder hopes to expand her reach into daytime TV shows and radio shows and even survey opinions in newspapers, boardroom representation, and conference presentations.

When asked about the impact of MWK so far, she says, “There’s been an indirect impact. Some of the shows refrain from posting a single picture of their manels nowadays. Instead, they post a single picture with a caption or don’t post at all,” she says. She notes that as a result of criticism, some shows like K24 This Morning have taken to having one woman on their panels. This, however, is little more than a tokenistic approach to inclusivity. Another media house, Citizen TV Kenya, engages with her from time to time, but she has yet to see whether this engagement will translate into a broader impact on the show.

MWK’s founder isn’t the only Kenyan working on this issue, either. Three Kenyan researchers, Nanjala Nyabola, Ory Okolloh Mwangi, and Nanjira Sambuli, pioneered the work on ending manels by creating a public media database of over 350 women who are available to speak and give analysis on different topics. But MWK’s founder acknowledges that more needs to be done — and an approach different from women doing all of the labor to encourage male-dominated industries to include women is necessary.

“Media houses should institute gender and diversity policies with clear gender quotas — the only acceptable one being 50% — and making the diversity policies visible on websites, across all social media platforms, and on in-house brand adverts,” she explained. Shows already doing this that Kenyan media houses could emulate include Al Jazeera’s The Stream and the BBC’s 50-50 project. Additionally, she says that media houses should take into account the burden of the double shift on women, and give them enough time to prepare for their shows, rather than give them no notice and blame their inability to show up for panels on their familial duties.

She also points out that media houses should diversify their pool of women speakers rather than continuously invite the same female speakers, as it overloads their schedules. Ultimately, she hopes that through the documentation that she does, MWK will be able to make a case to executives at Kenyan media houses and regulatory bodies like the Media Council of Kenya on the need for an industry-wide binding gender and diversity policy framework. It would also be impactful to get advertisers to commit not to sponsor shows with manels.