KENYA-MEDIA: Public Media Shuts Out Public Opposition Voices

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Oct 14 1997 (IPS) - The Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), which is publicly owned, appears to have adopted a deliberate policy of marginalising the voice of opposition political leaders during the run-up to elections, a leading human rights group here says.

“KBC Radio and TV airwaves consistently marginalise the opposition,” says Alamin Mazrui, director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC).

In a 30-page report, launched here on Monday, the organisation compiled a dossier of “evidence” detailing what it claims to be KBC’s gross biasness towards the opposition during the month of July.

“This is in spite of the provision in the KBC Act requiring the corporation to provide ‘independent’ and ‘impartial’ broadcasting services,” said Mazrui.

The report, entitled “Elections’ 97: Media Monitoring In Kenya”, found that presidential events and KANU political leaders’ events took up more than 90 percent of KBC TV and Radio airtime in July.

“By contrast, its coverage of the opposition’s events has been grossly inadequate — opposition events took up five percent of both KBC’s radio and TV airtime — and (this coverage was) almost always negative,” said the report.

“KBC gives the opposition not only very lean coverage, but also coverage that is laden with negative innuendoes and explicit statements on its supposedly inherent destructive, nature and hence, unsuitability to govern,” said Mazrui.

To justify its claims, KHRC, among others, mentioned the return to Kenya of Sheikh Khalid Balala, a key founder member of the unregistered Islamic Party of Kenya, after about three years of forced exile in Germany, by the Kenyan government. “This event was not covered by the KBC news. However, Balala’s courtesy call to City Hall on Jul. 14, where a controversy ensued amongst the City Councillors, received coverage,” the report said.

KBC news also failed to carry the Police Commissioner’s apology to the clergy for beating them up, and for invading the All Saints Cathedral (Anglican Church) in Nairobi, during a demonstration called by the opposition on Jul. 7 to demand for constitutional reforms.

“We have singled out KBC because it is a public corporation. It is run by my money. And your money. So, it has no right to be bias,” Maina Kiai, executive director of KHRC, told journalists here.

What seems to be worrying the KHRC is the KBC’s monopoly over Kenya’s rural population. “As the situation stands, almost all electronic media with the exception of KBC, is limited to the Nairobi metropolis, while Kenyans in the rural areas remain captive to information aired by KBC.

“And, in the absence of alternative sources of information, many Kenyans become relatively prone to its propaganda. Above all, this monopoly over rural Kenya gives KBC a free reign, to decide not only who has access to its information, but also what information Kenyans have access to,” said Mazrui.

Over 90 percent of Kenya’s estimated 30 million people live in the rural areas.

“The exclusive monopolisation that KBC has over rural Kenya is inimical to democracy and should stop. Alternative media must and should be provided with access to the rural population,” said the report.

It urged the government to review as priority, and with a view to granting, the pending licence applications for broadcasting. A total of 103 applications for TV and 39 for radio stations are said to be pending since July 1996.

Only three private radio companies have licences to operate in Kenya. Of the three, only two are fully operational: FEBA radio, a religious radio station and Capital FM, an entertainment radio station. The third one, Royal Media Trust, is yet to become operational.

Both the FEBA and Capital FM are only heard in Nairobi area, leaving KBC radio as the only station with a reach beyond the city.

Similarly, there are only three privately-owned TV broadcast stations in Nairobi: Kenya Television Network (KTN), owned by KANU; Stellavision, the local partner for Sky Television of England, which airs international news and entertainment programmes and Cable Television Network (CTN), which does not air local news. These stations are also only received in Nairobi.

The fear of KBC’s monopoly in the rural area is highlighted in a 1990 survey conducted by the London-based PANOS Institute, which revealed that Kenya has 20 radio sets and five TV sets for every 100 inhabitants.

About 70 – 80 percent of Kenya’s geographical area is covered by radio, even though there is no empirical data to back this up. Also, figures from ‘The Daily Nation’, ‘The East African’, ‘Standard’, ‘Kenya Times’, and ‘The East African’ indicate that approximately 350,000 adults have access to the print media daily.

This means that only less than 0.03 percent of the population have access to the information in the newspapers. But, during campaign time, politicians also hold rallies, do house-to-house canvassing, and distribute pamphlets to disseminate their messages.

Despite the stinging criticisms by KHRC, KBC insists that it is committed to providing a fair coverage during the elections. A KBC director told journalists here recently that the agency “will ensure fair coverage is given to each political party.”

Last month, an Inter-Party Parliamentary Group (IPPG), also recommended that KBC should, “keep a fair balance in all respects in the allocation of broadcasting hours between the different political viewpoints”.

Kiai said he told the group, which is reforming Kenya’s constitution, that its recommendation did not go far enough, and must be strengthened.

“It is clear that there can be no fair elections if opposition groups are not given at least a year of airtime to make up for the five years of campaigning that KANU has done on radio.

“Elections held within the current broadcast framework, will render the outcome of the pending elections necessarily dubious and contestable,” Kiai warned.