Kenya’s public broadcaster, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, is reportedly on the verge of collapse due to serious financial and management problems. According to the secretary general of the Communication Workers' Union, Benson Okwaro, KBC, alongside the Postal Corporation of Kenya, are almost collapsing. He has asked the government to bail out these organisations.
The problems afflicting KBC are not entirely new; they are well known to any keen observer of the ins and outs of KBC. What is new, however, are the claims that these problems could lead to the collapse of KBC.
The history of African broadcasting in Kenya dates back to 1953 when the first broadcast service was created for Africans in Swahili and a few local languages. Television was introduced in 1962. In 1964, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation became the Voice of Kenya after it was nationalised. In 1989, Parliament enacted a law renaming the public broadcaster the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.
Until the liberalisation of the airwaves in the 1990s, KBC was the only radio and television national network broadcasting in Kiswahili, English and 19 local languages. Under the one-party system, KBC was the government mouthpiece, often making sure the President, government and his close associates got the lion’s share of coverage. It was necessary to ensure the President got first treatment in every news broadcast, or risk disciplinary action. Under this arrangement, the opposition existed in name only, far removed from the national channel.
Even though the one-party system monopolised KBC news and information, the government-controlled organ was largely free in many other ways. It was tasked with educating, informing and entertaining Kenyans, the objective of which was to unify the nation. These services were provided by three main broadcast channels – vernacular or local languages, Swahili and English services.
There is a noticeable difference between the broadcasters of the single-party era and those of today’s multiparty system. From the 1970s through the 1990s many of the broadcasters were less educated – some of them were form four graduates, but they possessed other qualities that earned them fame and glory. They were disciplined, they had good voices and they were fluent. With this diversity, Broadcasting House, KBC’s headquarters, represented the face of Kenya.
The advent of multiparty politics in 1991 and the subsequent liberalisation of the airwaves proved a challenge to the KBC management. It failed to respond and restructure in good time to keep it on an equal competitive footing with the emerging broadcast industry. For KBC, It was business as usual.
The attitude of some senior officials and pro-establishment politicians towards KBC made the situation worse. These officials and politicians blatantly interfered with KBC’s operations and frustrated any attempts at reform. When Wachira Waruru, the then MD, tried to institute change, he was branded an opposition sympathiser. He quit to join Royal Media Services, now the leading broadcaster in East Africa.
The ICT ministry should ensure KBC remains the voice of Kenyans by instituting measures such as freeing the revenues KBC collects to improve services and innovation. The government should allow KBC to pay competitive salaries and other motivations to stop the exodus of staff to the private sector. Many of the broadcasters KBC has trained have fled for greener pastures. I am one of them.
The KBC management should desist from tribalism, nepotism and favouritism in staff recruitment. As a public broadcaster, KBC must, of necessity, represent diversity.
The management also erred when it allowed the Communications Commission of Kenya, now the Communications Authority, to snatch its so-called unused frequencies and dish them out to politicians and businesspeople. This has hampered KBC’s ability to innovate, restructure, grow and compete with the private sector.
KBC should not collapse. Its long and rich history of unifying Kenyans through programmes such as Kivunja Mbavu, Mzee Pembe and Vitimbi is cherished by many Kenyans.
Most importantly, there is no government on earth that does not own a functional public broadcasting mouthpiece to serve the national interest. Well funded and managed, KBC should serve the national interest.
The writer is a communications specialist.