The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of alternative press in mobilizing Kenyans to regain a multi-party political system after 29 years of one-party rule that had turned into authoritarianism. The study focused on Society magazine, and touched on two other magazines, Finance and Nairobi Law Monthly. Unlike Society, these magazines were not intended to cover politics, although they changed their role later. Finance and Nairobi Law Monthly were examined through secondary sources and the author's interactions with the publishers. Whereas Society was a weekly founded and run by journalists, Finance and Nairobi Law Monthly were monthlies founded and run by non-journalists. The other goal of this study was to find out how the alternative press affected the mainstream press, particularly the Nation. The study began with examination of Kenya's history and government-press relationship from 1895 to 1992. The period covered three major eras: The colonial period (1895-1963); the first era of the African government under President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta (1963-1978); and the second era of the African government under President Daniel arap Moi, who was in office from 1978 to 2002. I analyzed the first 14 of Moi's 24-year rule, when the country reverted to a democracy. The Study found that by not giving in to government pressure and threats, the alternative publications encouraged the mainstream press to defy the government and to regain freedom. Here are two examples of how the alternative press encouraged the mainstream press. When Oginga Odinga announced his intentions to form the opposition National Development Party, and the political pressure Forum for Restoration of Democracy, the mainstream press did not cover the announcements for fear of the government. The alternative press covered the announcements weeks later, after which the Nation and the Standard began covering debate on the government's refusal to register the two organizations. Society pioneered publication of political cartoons of government leaders in Kenya, and now the dailies use such cartoons without fear.

News in our contemporary newspapers has come to be associated more and more with what the elites do and say. Both their deeds and misdeeds are treated as newsworthy events and in the process they become newsmakers, both actors and sources of news. Even when they are not directly involved in news events they are sought out by journalists to validate those events and to interpret the social reality to the readers as news sources. This study is about the selection of news sources in the Daily Nation, a contemporary, independent newspaper based in Nairobi, Kenya. In this study, I set out to unravel the complex processes that underlie newsmaking and source selection. This study is informed by the theory of news values and the paradigm of the role of media in democracy. Based on qualitative interviews, observations and content analysis of the front-page stories, it investigates the process of news and source selection in front-page stories. Through these approaches, I established that news values are significant criteria that inform journalists in both the selection of front-page news stories and the sources of these stories. I also established that social values of the society in which this newspaper operates are heavily embedded in the news. For example, the journalists preferred male politicians as sources of news in the front-page stories to women, and the elites to ordinary people, and this reflected on the social structures and cultural norms that are prevalent in this society. This study, further, established that the news values of this newspaper share commonly with the Western news media in terms of journalistic conventions and ways of interpreting the social reality in the news. Ideally, the newspaper embraces the principles of democracy in news reporting, but in practice it does not satisfactorily adhere to the full requirements of its democratic role in terms of source selection. The democratic principles in news reporting require, among other things, that the newspaper should allow a diversity of views in the news, representing various groups that are found in real society including the elites, non-elites, women, ordinary people and minorities. In the case of the Daily Nation, a tiny group of elite male professional politicians made up the largest majority of its front-page news sources.