ART CHECK: Gospel of a poet at 46
Lemon plant on highway evokes resilience against odds
1mon agoJUSTUS MAKOKHASasa
The gathering took the form of a one-day dissemination conference in which two scholars, Dr Mugo Muhia and Peter Muhati, presented the outcomes of years of painstaking research.
Their project was titled: ‘Hansard Report Production Process in the Devolved Government Structure in Kenya and its Implication for Democratic Governance’.
It was shared with a cross-section of faculty drawn from the Department of Literature, Linguistics and Foreign Languages.
Dr Muhia took the participants through the background and key contours of the research. He began by clarifying what a Hansard is: the official verbatim report of parliamentary or assembly proceedings.
In every democracy, the Hansard is more than a record; it is a mirror of political life. It provides the public with visibility into decision-making processes, thereby strengthening transparency and accountability.
The devolution of power to county governments after the 2010 Constitution made the Hansard not just a national but also a county-level necessity. Each county assembly must produce accurate, timely and accessible Hansard reports if citizens are to monitor, participate in and trust their devolved institutions. In this way, Hansard production becomes an indispensable pillar of democratic governance.
Dr Muhia highlighted how the Hansard production process involves recording, transcription, editing and dissemination. These activities are deeply rooted in the four skills of language: listening, speaking, reading and writing. To him, Hansard production is, therefore, not merely a technical task. It is also a field of language competence.
He argued that language education in our country must cohere with social practices in which communication skills are core and cogent. For this reason, Hansard production should be considered in light of the ongoing shift to a competency-based education. The education system cannot afford to detach itself from real-life domains, where language skills serve governance, administration and civic engagement.
Yet challenges remain. The Hansard-preparation docket often suffers from invisibility within county structures. It is rarely accorded the recognition it deserves. Limited access to resources, undervaluation of institutional support and a deficit in skilled personnel hamper efficiency.
More than a decade since the promulgation of the new Constitution, counties still grapple with these issues. Dr Muhia invited the audience to theorise these challenges not only in practical terms but also in the language of political economy.
The production of the Hansard is not neutral; it is a question of how resources are distributed, how institutional priorities are determined and how the visibility of language labour is shaped within the machinery of governance.
His position, therefore, was that the fate of Hansard reporting mirrors the philosophical struggles of democracy itself: recognition, representation and resourcing.
NEED FOR REFORM
His colleague Muhati then took the floor to present the detailed research findings, with a special focus on areas in need of reform.
First, he stressed the need for uniform editorial guidelines across the 47 county assemblies. At present, practices differ from county to county, leading to uneven quality and accessibility.
Secondly, he advocated for structured and regular training for Hansard personnel, who must keep pace with the evolving demands of language technology and political communication.
Thirdly, he underscored the importance of standard hiring policies and clear terms of service, which would professionalise the Hansard teams and secure their operations from political interference.
He also drew attention to the urgent need for investment in appropriate technology. Counties must embrace digital tools and recruit specialists who can operate them effectively. Many of these specialists could be drawn from the younger generation, particularly Gen Z, who have already shown remarkable political awareness and readiness to serve.
Because devolution is anchored at the grassroots, tapping into this pool of tech-savvy youth could rejuvenate Hansard operations. In addition, he recommended that all Hansard data be cloud-saved. Cloud storage would not only ensure the integrity of reports but also protect archives from loss or manipulation.
The question-and-answer session and ensuing discussions were chaired by Prof Chege Githiora, who also serves as chair of the Research Collaboration and Outreach Committee of the department, of which I am a member.
In his concluding remarks, Prof Githiora praised the two scholars for mentoring younger colleagues and postgraduate students, many of whom had served as field assistants and feedback writers during the project. Their presence at the conference testified to the collaborative spirit of the research and the continuity of scholarly tradition.
As the meeting drew to a close, a strong exhortation was issued to linguists and literary scholars: they must cast away the persistent notion that applied research cannot arise from the humanities. Too often, it is assumed that because literature and linguistics deal with the art and craft of communication, they cannot generate practical solutions or attract substantial funding.
The work of Dr Muhia and Muhati stands as a resounding counter-example. It demonstrates that applied research in the humanities can indeed illuminate governance, strengthen democracy and attract institutional interest.
