Broadcasting in Kenya: Policy and Politics, 1928-1984 (Africa, Radio, Television)
Heath, Carla Wilson
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/77291
Description
Title
Broadcasting in Kenya: Policy and Politics, 1928-1984 (Africa, Radio, Television)
Author(s)
Heath, Carla Wilson
Issue Date
1986
Department of Study
Speech Communication
Discipline
Speech Communication
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Mass Communications
Language
eng
Abstract
This is an historical study of broadcasting in Kenya from the establishment of a regular service in 1928 to the twentieth anniversary of the Voice of Kenya in 1984. The focus of the study is on broadcasting policies and their relationship to changing social and economic structures, political struggles, and external pressures.
The primary data for the study were interviews with policy makers and media professionals, archival deposits, National Assembly debates, and observations of Kenyan radio and television.
A dual system of broadcasting was established in the colonial period, a privately owned commercial system for European and Asian settlers and a non-commercial, government operation for Africans. The structures and policies of these systems are outlined and assumptions about the role of communications in society which lay behind those systems are discussed. The formation of a single national system, which paralleled the transition of Kenya from a colony to an independent republic, is examined. Policies regarding services, technology, organization, and financing and the implications of these for radio and television programming are explored, and the role of broadcasting in the political process is analyzed.
Broadcasting in Africa has typically been regarded as an administrative tool. This analysis suggests that broadcasting in Kenya is more than an instrument for progagating administrative policies and extending the personal power of national leaders. It is also an important national institution which has significantly contributed to stability in the country. Through the broadcasting institution, the government has been able to broaden its base of support and gain the cooperation of powerful individuals and groups necessary for it to remain in power and to carry out its development projects without excessive recourse to force.
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