KASS media to launch Kenya's first vernacular TV station

By Alex Kiprotich

For the first time in the history of broadcasting in Kenya, Kenyans will have a vernacular television station with hundred per cent local content.

KASS TV which is currently on test run will soon be launched and will be broadcast in Kalenjin language in Kenya and Washington DC, USA.

“We are currently testing the signals and so far the response has been overwhelming from our viewers,” said Joshua Chepkwony the chairman of Kass Media.

Chepkwony said this was a response to a request by the massive followers of Kass FM radio station especially in Rift Valley and in Diaspora.

“We are responding to the needs of our audience who want much more. Creativity in the current broadcasting has hit the ceiling because the use of foreign languages always has a limit,” he said.

He said the idea is to reach to all kinds of audience without limitation of language because the current scenario of broadcast favours only the educated and locks out sizeable audience in the villages who also need to be informed. Chepkwony said the broadcast and interviews will be done in Kalenjin and this brings inclusivness, authenticity and originality in the way presentations are done.

“We will be able to reach to the common man whose limitation in terms of education has confined him to exclusion. He will have a platform to be heard and appreciated,” he said.

Chepkwony is optimistic that by December they will be through with trials and will broadcast live in all events especially in the seven counties of Rift valley.

“We are putting in place staff and training them before we dispatch them to counties and we will be able to broadcast live,” he said.

Though politics is dominant in our society, he said, the station will balance its content with other spheres in life and is currently coming up with documentaries on culture, tourism sites, agriculture and other educative material that will ensure that the new generation appreciate what their culture offers.

“Most of the times parents complain that their children have abandoned their culture but we have to be fair to the children because they have grown up exposed to other cultures imported and one of the aims of KASS TV is to educate and document cultures,” he said.

He added, “This will change the perception we have relating to our cultures which have been relegated by youths. They will have an avenue to appreciate the authenticity of it.”

He said KASS TV will revolutionize TV viewing and encourage others who would want to broadcast in other ethnic languages.