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High
ratings threaten Kenyan station
by John Kamau, Rights News Service
(February 1, 2000)
A private Kenya radio and television station may be closed after
its owner, Samuel K. Macharia, broadcast “anti-government”
messages to areas controlled by the country’s ruling political
party.
 The
Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK), which regulates broadcast
frequencies in Kenya, has cancelled broadcast licenses for Citizen
Radio and Television, which is owned by Macharia’s Royal
Media Services. CCK also switched Citizen off the air in the Rift
Valley districts where 74-year-old President Daniel arap Moi hails
from.
| A
Kenyan radio and television station faces a hefty fine after
beating the government-owned station in the ratings. |
CCK Director Sam Chepkonga
claimed that Macharia owes the body about Kshs 20 million (US$286,000),
a charge Macharia dismissed as “a lie.” “The real
dispute is whether or not certain audience in some parts of Rift
Valley province should receive broadcasts from Citizen Radio and
TV,” said Macharia.
Overreaching its
bounds?
 |
Since
starting a radio and television station in Kenya, S. K. Macharia
has come under attack from the government. |
The radio station is
accused of “exceeding its area of operation in the Rift Valley
province” after its broadcasts became popular in President
Moi’s place of birth, the Koibatek-Baringo district in the
center of the Rift Valley.
“The default reason
is a camouflage because I have not defaulted in my frequency payments
to CCK,” Macharia said.
CCK also accuses Royal
Media of “shifting” its transmitter from Londiani Hill
to another location and breach of license conditions. “To
me it seems that the reason for this is because they do not want
us to broadcast in the Rift Valley, but now they have even cut
us off from Nyambene (on the slopes of Mt. Kenya),” said
Macharia.
High ratings start
controversy
 The
station’s problems started when its ratings in the so-called
Kanu-zones, named after the ruling political party Kenya African
National Union (KANU), began to beat that of the state-owned Kenya
Broadcasting Corporation. Macharia was thus seen as promoting
the opposition in these areas.
On January 7, Telkom
Company, the agency in charge of telephone and communication in
Kenya, disconnected Citizen Radio’s transmitter in Londiani
Hill, arguing that “Royal Media had overstepped the geographical
boundaries allocated to it.”
Shut down in the
Rift Valley
When Macharia asked
CCK’s director who had switched them off the Rift Valley,
the director, according to Macharia, said he had “been instructed
by higher authorities.”
“Because CCK is,
by law, an independent authority, I did not believe that he could
have done that. I asked him to tell me where he thought Royal
Media ought to locate its transmitter to if it was not to operate
from the Londiani Hill as licensed. On January 14, the CCK director
ordered me to write a letter to him to the effect that Royal Media
had installed the Londiani Hill transmitter illegally. I told
him that Royal Media’s transmitter at Londiani Hill had been
lawfully installed, and consequently I would not write the letter,”
said Macharia.
Citizen Radio went
to court and the High Court ordered that Telkom reconnect the
station. But Telkom has told the court that it had difficulty
complying with the order because CCK had told it that Royal Media
installed the Londiani transmitter illegally.
Claims of unpaid
fees
On January 21, after
failing to resolve the transmitter problem, CCK threatened to
stop Citizen Radio and TV from broadcasting, alleging there were
unpaid license fees and conditions of license which Royal Media
had contravened.
CCK now claims that
the order to switch off Citizen from Rift Valley had been delivered
from the highest levels of government and CCK took over when Telkom
failed. “If Royal Media does not pay Kshs 20 million, it
would lose all its frequency licenses countrywide,” threatened
CCK spokesman Mutua Muthusi.
Telkom had entered
into an agreement with Royal Media in which Telkom was to lease
Royal Media its transmission tower and accommodation and other
equipment at their Londiani Hill Station. “The disabling
of Royal Media’s equipment is not because of alleged non-payment
of Kshs 20 million. It is rather because CCK believes that Citizen
Radio has exceeded its territory of operation — which it
has not,” said Macharia.
Fallen out of
favor?
Macharia, from the
opposition-dominated Kikuyu tribe, was part of a group of politicians
who campaigned to popularize Moi’s government within the
tribe during the 1997 general elections to no avail. He apparently
has fallen out of favour now and his Kshs 600 million (US$8.5
million) investment may go down the drain with a penstroke.
The station’s
general manager, Karanja Njoroge, has dismissed the CCK threat,
saying, “We will not act on an illegal demand.”
Kenya has four radio
and television stations: Stelavision (STV) owned by Hillary Ngweno,
a former chairman of Kenya Wildlife service; Kenya Television
Network (KTN) owned by Moi’s relatives and friends; Family
Radio and Television; and Nation Radio and Television owned by
Ismailia leader, The Aga Khan.
There is worry that
few Kenyans will be able to put their money into the electronic
media industry with the ongoing threats.
“Investors will
shy away from the electronic media if CCK engaged in arbitrary,
haphazard, and abrupt cancellation of licenses,” said Gibson
Kamau Kuria, the Royal Media lawyer. “Citizen Radio could
be victims of highhandedness by the government on stations seen
to be propagating dissenting views,” said Beth Mugo, a Nairobi
legislator.
As the battle continues
in Kenya’s courts, there is worry about the Moi government’s
commitment to liberalize the airwaves.
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