Project Context

In the aftermath of the 2007/8 post-election violence in Kenya, various reports by independent media organisations commended community radio in Kenya in the stemming of the violence. The BBC World Service Trust Media Policy Briefing of 2009 observed that community media, despite its tiny size, emerged from the post – election crisis with great credit and provided a model for the future. The briefing recommended better and more strategic engagement and support with community radios in Kenya in peace building engagements.  At the same time, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters Africa (AMARC-Africa) produced a report titled, Community Radio and The Post -Election Violence In Kenya In 2008 by Matu Nguri   . The report found that the community radio stations in Kenya were careful in their coverage of violence, were not perceived to have taken sides in their coverage and had a much higher score than the rest of the media.

Community radios in Kenya have become more sensitive on ethnic diversities after the 2007/ 8 post-election violence and have increasingly encouraged peaceful co-existence in their communities. They have played bigger roles in efforts on peace building and conflict resolution in Kenya. However, many community radio journalists still lack formal education in journalism and training in particular in conflict sensitive reporting. They lack sufficient training or body of knowledge and experience they can easily fall back on when reporting violence. In the context of violence, many follow their commonsense and the guidance of the values and mission of their stations.

Granted that some journalists from community radio stations have been trained and engaged in election and conflict sensitive reporting, much more still needs to be done to reach out to more community radio stations in Kenya and deepen their knowledge and engagements in conflict sensitive reporting and also improve their journalism and content production skills.

Project Objective

Community radio actively engaged in conflict sensitive reporting in the pursuit of sustainable Peace and development in Kenya.

Approach

The project will work in three levels i.e. capacity building, program sharing and content production. It will involve about 36 community radios in Kenya i.e. 23 public Community radios and 13 Catholic radios of the KCCB -Waumini communications.

UMOJA Radio for Peace project will seek to implement its objective through building capacities of the community radios journalists. This will be done through in house training’s and workshops in geographical clusters where the community radios are located at. Each radio will be expected to send their representatives for the training’s. Field assessment visits will also be done to gauge the nature, strengths and challenges on conflict sensitive reporting and in general journalism and content production capabilities.

Small grants will be provided for content production e.g. feature stories, radio spots, radio drama etc. to enhance more good quality peace related productions.

Special events like World Radio and World Press freedom day will also be commemorated together with the radio makers to keep the spirit of radio alive and to celebrate its milestones.

Expected results

• This is aimed at strengthening the community radio journalists’ knowledge and skills and how to report in a conflict sensitive manner
• Equip them with the attitudes and skills to produce and broadcast radio programs on peace building and conflict resolution in Kenya
• Promote behaviour change and active engagement of community radio listeners/audience in peace building and conflict resolution in their communities and in the country at large
• Facilitation and improvement of the journalists skills on production of better/high quality radio features and/or radio-drama