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Fighting
for broadcast frequencies
by John Kamau, Rights Features Service
(July 6, 2000) A case
in which a private Kenyan radio station is demanding back all
its broadcasting frequencies, which were allegedly cancelled after
its broadcasts reached ruling-party strongholds and President
Daniel arap Moi's backyard, will be determined on July 14.
 The
long-awaited Court of Appeal ruling is seen as a test case on
the relationship between private stations and government-run agencies
that control broadcasting frequencies in Kenya where media freedom
has been curtailed.
Cancelled frequencies
Citizen Radio and Television,
owned by Samuel K. Macharia's Royal Media Services, has been fighting
for the best part of this year to get its broadcasting frequencies
back. Earlier this year, the Kenyan government cancelled the station's
broadcasting frequencies, thus blocking the station from broadcasting
in President Moi's stronghold in Rift Valley Province.
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Citizen
Radio owner S. K. Macharia believes the real issue over the
controversy surrounding his station is whether people in Kenya’s
Rift Valley can hear his station’s broadcasts. |
The station was at
first accused of broadcasting "anti-government" messages, but
the government agency in charge of frequencies, the Communication
Commission of Kenya (CCK), later claimed that the station owed
the body Kenya Shillings 20 million (US$286,000) a charge Macharia
dismissed as a "lie."
Two weeks after the
Digital Freedom Network sent a letter to the Kenyan government
protesting several recent attacks on Kenyan media, including the
case against Citizen, the station was allowed to broadcast in
limited areas.
Throughout the six-month
saga, Macharia has maintained that "the real dispute is whether
or not certain audience in some parts of Rift Valley province
should receive broadcasts from Citizen Radio and Television."
The station was also
accused of "exceeding its area of operation" after its broadcasts
became popular in President Moi's place of birth where only the
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation radio reaches.
There is fear that
if the Court of Appeal rules in favor of CCK, it will set a precedent
in which the agency can switch off private stations at will.
Citizen Radio and Television
lawyer Gibson Kamau Kuria, in his submissions to three appellate
judges, reminded the court that an investment worth Kenya shillings
600,000,000 (US$8,200,000) will go down the drain and perhaps
lead to the closure of one of Kenya's leading radio stations.
Denied use of towers
On February 29, a Kenyan
High Court judge, Justice Kasanga Mulwa, refused to restrain the
state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Telkom Kenya Ltd., and
CCK from interfering with Citizen's broadcasting equipment. This
decision prompted the current appeal.
 Mulwa
said that before he restrains them, "the court will have to determine
whether there was a contract" between Royal Media (which owns
Citizen Radio and Television) and the three bodies.
But a day later, Judge
Mulwa overturned his ruling and ordered that Citizen Radio and
Television frequencies be restored in Nyeri and Nyambene areas.
He refused to give orders for Londiani Hill, where Citizen transmits
to the Rift Valley province.
Ever since, the station
has not been able to broadcast in those areas after the state-run
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) denied Citizen a right to
use government-installed transmitter towers in Nyeri and Nyambene
hills.
Silenced in the
Rift Valley
In his concluding submissions
on June 30, Kuria reminded the court that Citizen Radio's transmitter
at Londiani was switched off to ensure it was not heard in some
parts of the Rift Valley.
| A
Kenyan station's six-month battle with the government over
its broadcasting frequencies approaches an end. |
"There was displeasure
that transmission from Londiani was being received in areas where
there was objection," Kuria told the judges. He denied that the
radio station's transmitters at Londiani, Nyeri, and Nyambene
were switched off because the station owed money to CCK and KBC.
Lawyers for CCK and
KBC told the court that Royal Media owed Kenya shillings 30 million
for broadcasting frequencies, use of equipment, and other services.
"The default reason
is a camouflage," says Macharia, who has fallen out of favor with
the ruling elite.
The KBC lawyer said
KBC switched off Citizen transmitters after CCK informed it that
it had withdrawn Royal Media's broadcasting licenses. "We realized
that we could not maintain our relationship with Royal Media without
breaking the law,'' he said.
Asked by the appellate
judges why KBC took a whole year to switch off the transmitters,
the lawyer said Macharia was politically influential at that time.
Grudge against Macharia
Observers say that
the ruling party has a grudge against the media tycoon after he
refused to toe their line. They see the current harassment as
an attempt to bring down Macharia's fledging Radio and TV station
and nip it in the bud using government agencies.
Kuria said Citizen
has paid Kenya shillings 9 million in frequency fees for one year
up to January 29, 2000. The balance was to be paid quarterly,
but the station was switched off long before the payment was due.
But the CCK lawyer
said the transmitters were switched off after Royal Media breached
the rules on the use of broadcasting frequencies. He accused the
company of moving its transmitter from the agreed site in Nakuru
to Timboroa. This had enabled the company to broadcast beyond
Nakuru, jamming other frequency users, he told the court. He also
claimed that the station's equipment had not been inspected by
CCK, as required by the law.
Citizen maintains that
all their equipment have been certified by CCK engineers as required
by law.
As the saga now comes
to a close, the legal suit has cost the station millions of shillings
since advertisers are reluctant to associate with it. All in all,
it is being seen as President Moi's version of stifling.
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