Michael Mundia Kamau
                            P.O. Box 58972
                            00200 City Square
                            Nairobi
                            Kenya

                            1st April 2004

                   FREEZE FM

The Kenya government instituted probe on leading Kenyan radio station
Kiss 100 is an ill- timed move that sends the wrong signals to the
Kenyan media and Kenyan public at large. It is ridiculous to prefer claims
of vulgarity against Nairobi’s Kiss 100 in a country that suffers no
shortage of vulgarities and profanities. The chief executives of two of
the leading media groups in Kenya, The Nation Media Group and The
Standard Limited, constitute part of the probe team that has been formed by
the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Raphael Tuju, which goes
against the code of collective responsibility and is indeed a recipe for
self-induced media destruction in Kenya.

Even if the claims against Nairobi’s Kiss 100 are true, which they are
not, Kiss 100 cannot be accused of propagating vulgarities any more
than the rest of the wider Kenyan society. There is no objectivity in the
minister’s decision to take such a drastic step. The Nation Media
Group’s “Sounds of Africa” aired on Nation FM every Sunday from 9.00 a.m.
and 12.00 noon has a heavy sexual content and can be described as vulgar
and profane. The “East African Standard” recently launched a Friday
weekly magazine “Pulse”, which features scantily dressed public figures
and models on it’s social scenes pages. The Kenya Television Network
(KTN), has also been criticised for airing “Channel O”, the music channel
heavily laden with sexual suggestiveness. A wide range of Kenyan
television stations ranging from the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC),
Kenya Television Network (KTN) and Stellavision (STV), air Congolese
musicians and their different music styles like “Ndombolo”, “Kwasa Kwasa”
and “Mutwashi”, which are heavy laden in their sexual suggestiveness.

It will be curious to know the exact source of the bitter complaints
against Kiss 100’s “vulgarities”. Many of the Public Service Vehicles
used by Kenyans play loud occidental music full of obscenities. Much of
this is North American rap music where it is easier to point out standard
language than it is to point out profanities. It is had to tell whose
benefit this music is played for. The public has not been able to rein
in this offensive practice since the 1980s and it is strange that Kiss
100 should stand targeted.

What’s more is that “profanities” are not a recent development in
Kenya. The late Marvin Gaye’s  hit single “Sexual Healing” was a released in
America in 1981 and was a hit in Kenya for most of 1982. “Sexual
Healing” is indeed still a hit in Kenya and is regarded as a classic. “Sexual
Healing” made and continues to make many a parent cringe with horror
when it is played on what can today be regarded as Kenya’s “numerous”
radio stations. When “Sexual Healing” was initially released the only
broadcasting station in Kenya was the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (then
known as Voice of Kenya), and it was where none other than Minister
Raphael Tuju, was then a television anchor ! Raphael Tuju should surely be
the last person to be brazenly curtailing press freedoms with
partiality. What’s more is that the current media structure in Kenya was
responsible in a big way for NARC’s 2002 election victory having done very
little to conceal their “de facto” campaign against the detested KANU
 regime.

Come the 1990s and Kenyans were introduced to more drama and horror in
the form of “Color me Badd’s”, “Let’s talk about sex” and Koffi
Olomide’s “Etoutana”, whose extremes saw to it being banned even in his native
Zaire. Kenya 2004 is no better, replicate with pornography and
obscenely dressed women. A newly launched Ugandan tabloid called “Red Pepper”,
specialising in hardcore pornography, is selling well in Kenya, and
making Kenya’s hitherto hardcore pornographic magazines, look like child’s
play.

When leading Kenyan thespian, Wahome Mutahi, passed away in 2003, he
was widely feted as an individual who made a valuable contribution to
this country. Amongst those who feted “whispers”, was the NARC government
which is now at the centre of harassing Kiss 100’s Walter Mongare, who
was in strong likelihood inspired by Mutahi ( “whispers”). The other
irony is that Walter Mongare made a name for himself by doing excellent
impersonations of former President Daniel arap Moi. Not once was Walter
or the “Redykyulass” group ever picked up for questioning by the KANU
regime, inspite of their satirical impersonations of leading figures in
the then regime. Walter and “Redykyulass” sometimes even portrayed Moi
dancing “Ndombolo”. Word even has it that Moi quite liked the
“Redykyulass” group, watching them often !

At the 2003 media awards Wilfred Kiboro, chief executive of the
prestigious Nation Media Group startled many by speaking out against the then
crackdown on the Kenyan alternative press by the Attorney General. Talk
about strong support from unexpected quarters. In principle, Mr.
Kiboro’s unexpected stand was geared at safeguarding wider press freedoms and
he must be commended for this. There was the fear that this country was
returning to the days of intimidating press censorship where even this
writing would have been the target of government intelligence officers
on the lookout for “subversives”. Mr. Kiboro is called upon once again
to lend his counsel to the government’s unnecessary affront on
Nairobi’s Kiss 100.



Michael Mundia Kamau