International broadcaster CNN has been on the receiving end after reporting that a Caucasian woman from London has discovered whales in Kenya.
An article titled “The Woman who found whales in Kenya” on CNN’s website says that former London lawyer Jane Spilsbury, who moved to Kenya with her husband, heard tales from local residents about whales and dolphins and took it upon herself to document and photograph the mammals, whose existence local residents had said they had known about for more than 30 years.
“Up until recently, most travellers, and even some locals, had no inkling of the aquatic mammals that occupy or pass through Kenya’s waters,” the story, by Ashleigh Stewart, says.
Spilsbury told CNN: “We literally came from a point of zero information and zero awareness, it seems ridiculous to imagine that nobody knew that the dolphins or whales existed here”.
She said: “We were amazed, because no one knew there were dolphins out there, not even the Kenya Wildlife Service”.
Casual way
Spilsbury says she learned about humpback whales in a similar casual way.
“It was as simple as talking to a fisherman at the bar and asking if he’d seen any humpback whales and he said ‘sure, we’ve seen them for 30 years’,” she says.
But according to Turtle Bay Beach Club in Watamu, Kilifi, humpback whales, travel annually in their thousands from the Antarctic to Kenya to breed and have their calves “in our safe tropical waters”.
Both migrations peak between July and September, which means that Kenya hosts the “Twin Migration”, a unique wildlife phenomenon, incorporating both savannah and sea safaris.
This is not the first time CNN has angered Kenyans. In 2015, Kenyans on Twitter roasted the broadcaster for a report on President Barack Obama’s visit to the country, in which they said he was going to a “hotbed of terror”.
Here is what some Kenyans had to say about the whale article.
#Someonetellcnn that local fishermen in Kenya on our shorelines were the first to see humpback whales in our oceans and not #JaneSpilsbury
Not all things are discovered by white people! Stop giving her credit for nothing! @RodgersRuthugua @JesseKenya @BenjiNdolo @B3laze @brayo1
– Jax #WhyILoveKenya🇰🇪💖 (@Jackie_Arkle) January 6, 2021
*deep breath* This article credits a white woman with discovering dolphins and whales in Watamu while at the same time pointing out that the local fishermen had known of their existence for decades. https://t.co/vsme383Eb0
– Shiko (@ShikoNguru) January 6, 2021
Where does @CNN get their journalists from? I knew about whales and dolphins in #Watamu more than 19 years ago. So saying that this lady discovered our dolphins is pure incompetence. More so, the fishermen there knew about their existence. Rogue media. https://t.co/AywyjO8V0o
– Habiba Abdi 🇰🇪🇸🇴🐐 (@Habibah_Abdi) January 6, 2021
Not even the boat operators who told them they were there 😐https://t.co/sEVoXmoxuY pic.twitter.com/pqkjKqS1sR
– Mbithi Masya (@mbithi) January 5, 2021
That article has me feeling all sorts of extremes. Locals have seen whales for over 30 years but madam is the one who discovered them? She is now the reason for the tourism boost in Watamu? Aht aht
– Miss Violette (@NdukuWambua) January 6, 2021