By Daniel Waitere, Media Adviser to Plan Finland in Kenya

Kenya lies astride the equator on the eastern coast of Africa.

Kenya is a medium-sized country by continental standards, and it covers an area of about 586,600km sq. and a population of 31 million people.

Generally the climate is warm and humid at the coast, cool and humid in the central highlands, and hot and dry in the north and east. Across most of the country, rainfall is strongly seasonal, although its pattern, timing and extent vary greatly from place to place.

Perhaps for visiting Finns the good news is you get to experience the sun throughout the year, no extreme weather conditions like the Scandinavian winter. The official language is English while the national language is Swahili.

Media broadcasts and publishing is mainly in English and Swahili. There are several other vernacular FM stations that broadcast to regions where a particular language other than English and Swahili is spoken.

Kenya has over 40 ethnic communities spread across the country although you will find various regions inhabited by particular communities. Nairobi is the capital city and is served by Jomo Kenyatta international airport about 17 kilometres from the city center.

Central place for East African press

Among the East African media Kenya is absolutely a very central place. The competence of the media workers and the media infrastructure established by media houses are advanced compared to the situation in neighboring countries.
 
Politics in Kenya is a murky world, and it presents an exciting but also dangerous opportunity for journalists to navigate through. Politics have known to polarize the country as leaders retreat to their ethnic formations and pit communities against each other.

This is the unfortunate trend that saw the country totter on the brink of civil war after the 2007 disputed presidential elections. The good thing is that after the violence, the government initiated far reaching reforms with institutions to promote national cohesion and reconciliation.

One such institution is the National Cohesion and Integration Commission chaired by Mzalendo Kibunja. It is important for foreign journalist covering political stories in Kenya to understand the role of ethnicity and how it shapes the national political mainlines. Many correspondents who are covering media topics in east Africa work in Nairobi, among these BBC, CNN and Reuters.

During election times, ethnicity has been used as a tool to fuel intolerance and to cast certain ethnic communities as unfairly dominating others. Leaders perceiving themselves as hailing from marginalised communities have incited their people to rise against their perceived enemies. This is the kind of strife that led to genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

It will require a judicious mind of a foreign reporter to sift through the ethnic bias and produce a fair, balanced and accurate story. The 2010 August 4 referendum will be a water shed as the country will vote to entrench a new constitution that will very radically change the way the country is governed.

Journalism in Kenya

Media in Kenya is extremely vibrant, and operating in an exceptionally free environment in comparison to other countries in East and Central Africa. Still the relations between the mass media and the Kenyan government are tense, and the question of controlling media outlets is controversial. However, the access to public information is available on request.

The government has a fully fledged secretariat called Public Communications Office manned by the government spokesman. Every Thursday the Government spokesman briefs the media on all matters touching on governance and public welfare. The Office also runs a website which is regularly updated. The media in Kenya is among the most trusted public institutions alongside parliament.

Kenyans are an expressive lot, and hardly will a journalist miss a story for the public is all the much willing to comment on almost everything that affects them. Journalists in Kenya are a respected lot, and the society at large associates with the media mutually.

Covering stories in sensitive areas such as slums or in conflict zones can be solved by getting a local guide. Rarely will a foreign journalist be denied access or encounter hostile reception, unless the motive of the story is intended to cast your hosts in bad light or if a foreign journalist projects a condescending attitude laced with negative stereotypes.

Media environment and system

Media in Kenya is both publicly and privately owned. There are more than 90 FM stations, 14 TV stations and several print newspapers and magazines in. They mainly use English as the primary language, with some media houses using Swahili. Use of vernacular languages is commonly in broadcast media, mostly in radio.
 
The main public television channel is the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, that is Channel 1. It is on the air nearly 24 hours. Programs include many local productions, as well as popular international shows. Channel 1 is broadcasted free-to-air, so that anyone with a television and antenna can pick it up.