The government of Kenya is highly determined to make local productions the daily bread of the country’s television and radio stations, the body has instructed the media stations to air 60 percent of local content come 2018.
This move is believed to carry majority of local talent growth as well as create employment. The move, if followed to the letter, will be able to generate 5.3 percent in the country’s GDP.
To back this up, Kenya’s Cabinet Minister for ICT Dr. Fred Matiang’i has already developed legislative and policy tools to facilitate the development of local content for the broadcast industry.
Apart from the policy that the minister mentioned, the government had announced, sometime last month, that it has set up a special fund to support the development of local content as well as to renew the creative industry.
The minister also said that the ministry of culture and sports will be coming up with a whole model of frameworks that will cover content developers. He also called upon other investor to boost the government.
The move seems to be a really good deal considering the growth in GDP, but there have been complaints in the side of the media industry saying that the government wants to control their media station and feel that they should be allowed to broadcast what they want.
They argue that the government only has rights over the national broadcaster (KBC) only, by doing so they will be infringing on their rights as independent stations.
