[Imc-africa] Community Radio in Kenya

Wed Oct 18 10:06:03 UTC 2006

Thanks comrade for filling in lots of gaps. We will discuss the issues 
you raise at our collective meeting on Sunday (anyone in Cape Town, 
please get in touch and come along - the meeting is in Observatory at 
11.30am on Sunday).

I think we should think of WSF as one stop on a long road. Although it 
is clear that every intervention - Dakar, Bamako, etc - has had its 
fruits, I like your emphasis on building strategically - finding the 
spaces in which Indymedia can take root, and ensuring that networks are 
nurtured into the future. From the various recent inputs, I think the 
slight distance that the Indymedia house will have from the WSF is 
probably a good thing, as it could facilitate a focus on Indymedia in 
Africa (a second Dakar? ) not just Indymedia during the WSF.

Aluta continua!

Peter

John Bwakali wrote:
> Hi Peter and Colleagues,
> Community radio in Kenya is indeed not so developed. While over the 
> last few years many FM radio stations have been formed, with a mainly 
> urban audience the same has not been true of community radio. We 
> however have quite a number of regional radio stations that broadcast 
> in local vernacular. These stations and the FM stations are mainly 
> entertainment intensive with snippets of educational programmes.
> A couple of years ago, I visited Mang'elete, the Eastern Kenya 
> community that has a radio station. I am not so sure of the current 
> status of that radio station but will pursue it further for purposes 
> of learning from their experience and networking. One challenge that a 
> community radio station here would face is the competition from either 
> the FM stations and/or local vernacular stations. Often, after a hard 
> day at work, many community members want to relax and often find this 
> relaxation in the form of soothing music from their pocket radios. In 
> the spirit of building capacity, I think it is important at this stage 
> to also start looking at non-technical issues like sustaining and 
> increasing an audience that has a myriad of other radio alternatives. 
> In other words, once the tool (radio) is there, how do you then use 
> the tool effectively?
> Concerning the issue of 'be your own journalist' I think that we can 
> use the WSF to greatly enhance the capacity of Indymedia activists in 
> Africa to employ independent media as a means of effecting change in 
> the society. My experience as a participant who was in the Dakar 
> conference is that we also need to focus a lot of our energies on a 
> broader strategy that is inclusive of, not exclusive to WSF. This way, 
> WSF wouldn't just be culmination of concerted effort but also the 
> launching pad of strategic action. This is why I find the Maseno radio 
> project to be quite strategic - it is inclusive of students, a local 
> community and Indymedia activists both in Kenya and abroad. If these 
> three can be able to work together, then this radio project has a 
> bright future indeed.
> What does it take to run a community radio succesfully? Those who can 
> answer this question either from experience or training or research 
> should share their answers with us so that we can revisit our local 
> context here and further refine a local approach that responds to 
> local challenges. I think I'll stop there for now, until later.
> Tuonane Kenya! (see you in Kenya)
> John Bwak
>
> */Peter van Heusden <pvh at wfeet.za.net>/* wrote:
>
>     Hi comrades - I don't know if anyone from Kenya can write a brief
>     report
>     on the status of community radio (and licensing) over there? A bit of
>     googling has delivered a few results:
>
>     SIDAREC Telecentre in Kenya to Start Community Radio
>     http://community.telecentre.org/en-tc/node/20844
>     "Slums Information Development and Resource Centre(SIDAREC), a
>     community
>     based NGO operating in the slums of Nairobi Kenya has been issued
>     with a
>     permit by the Kenyan government to operate a community radio station
>     covering the slum areas of Nairobi. The community radio station
>     will be
>     based at SIDAREC's Telecentre located at majengo (pumwani) slums, east
>     of Nairobi with a population of over 500,000 people." (this report is
>     from September 2006)
>
>     CATIA Newsletter
>     http://www.catia.ws/Newsletters/200609/Newsletter%20Sept%202006.htm
>     "• In Kenya, this component has been supporting KComNet and
>     Econews who
>     are advocacy groups for community radio. Community radio is clearly
>     recognised in the Media and Communication Policy document produced
>     as a
>     result of KICTAnet activities in which the community radio advocacy
>     groups participated."
>     Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) details :
>     http://radioafrica.oneworld.net/contact/company/view/10235
>     EcoNews Africa details : http://www.econewsafrica.org/
>
>     Putting Community Radio On The Map In Africa
>     http://www.cbonline.org.au/index.cfm?pageId=12,102,3,797
>     "In Kenya, Githaiga noted, the yearly licensing fee for all
>     stations was
>     currently a steep 1,733 dollars." and "At present, Kenya has only one
>     community radio station, Mang'elete, which began operating in the east
>     of the country after a decade of intense lobbying. Two other stations
>     are reportedly awaiting licensing." (this report is from April 2005)
>
>     News > Kenya > Media from APC
>     http://africa.rights.apc.org/index.shtml?apc=21872n21843e_1
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     Imc-africa mailing list
>     Imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
>     http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-africa
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great 
> rates starting at 1¢/min. 
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/postman7/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39666/*http://messenger.yahoo.com> 
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Imc-africa mailing list
> Imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-africa
>   