Media Wars! Fighting For The 5th. What Is The Future Of Kenyan Media?
From being denied even 10 minutes of air play, during his campaigns, to now being fought for by all media stations.
President Dr. William Ruto, is set to be sworn in on Tuesday the 13th of September, 2022, in a colorful ceremony expecting an attendance of 20 heads of state, 2,500 VIPs and 60, 000 locals.
However, local media stations have received a huge blow, when the government made it clear that KBC, would be the only channel broadcasting the event.
In a statement, Digital strategist Dennis Itumbi, who is part of the Ruto's communication team, noted that a contracted company, Live Eye, has also set up a channel on DSTV aimed at broadcasting the historic national event across the continent.
Titled Kenya Presidential Inauguration, the channel will go live on Monday, September 12, in preparation for the event slated to take place on Tuesday, September 13.
Speculations became awash that local channels would be locked out of the event and expected to purchase the feed for re-broadcasting from the contracted company, Live Eye.
The leading TV stations have been treating Kenyans to a bunch of symbolic quotes of wisdom and captions online, in what seems to be a battle of the media houses.
Early yesterday, KBC wrote on their socials; “He who digs a grave for his enemy might as well be digging one for himself.” NTV went right ahead and responded that “Nothing good ever comes out of violence”, while CITIZEN TV said “Nothing lasts forever.”
When KTN saw this, they quickly tweeted; “Never think it can’t happen to you! Leo ni sisi kesho ni wewe.” While TV47 seemed to be resonating with the 5th President of the republic of Kenya, by saying that; “The stone that the builder rejected has become the cornerstone!” EBRU TV seemed to be enjoying the war, saying “Vita vya panzi, furaha ya kunguru!”
So who will win this war? Speculations were that the international company will sell the feed to local broadcaster but a highly-placed source, however, confirmed that the feed will be availed to local broadcasters free of charge.
The source further explained that all journalists from Kenyan news outlets will be allowed into Kasarani Stadium to cover the event for the purpose of their later prime time bulletins.
"We will take the feed. The feed is free. The journalists will attend and record but the feed will not be ours. This has happened before, it is not something new. The concern of the media is that there is no quality control from their part," explained the source.
As for the National Broadcaster, KBC, it will be a field day then as they get the opportunity to cover every bit of it.
Many have lauded the move by Dr. Ruto to revamp the national broadcaster, terming it as a move that would make the station match the standards of BBC.