The power of longform storytelling

Date Posted : Thursday, 28 Mar 2013

By Dorothy Otieno, Internews in Kenya.

The reaction of NTV viewers to Blood Betrayal, a documentary on Incest in Kenya, indicates that Kenyans yearn for compelling stories with depth.

The 15-minute piece by Internews fellow William Inganga of KNA was aired on NTV on January 17 during the 9pm Prime Time news.

“Sad...Why do men do such things?” a viewer commented after watching the documentary on You Tube.

“These brave parents should be awarded for standing up for their children. I admire their courage because in most cases people just bow down to fit in, it takes a lot of courage to stand up to your family and even to? lose everything(your home, your piece of land). Do you know how many children they have saved by having those perverts behind bars?” another viewer wrote.

They were just some of the more than three thousand people who watched Blood Betrayal, on NTV’s YouTube site and posted comments.

Barely two months later, in a season when the Kenyan media was drowning in political news, Inganga managed to put a second documentary: Bringing them back on air on NTV prime time news on March 24th. The story on TB treatment was re-run the following day at 1pm.