Telephone
and Telecommunications Since 1977,
when the East African Community was
disbanded, the Ministry of Communications
and Power has handled national and
international postal and telecommunication
services.
Recent
decades have seen a dramatic expansion
of telephone services. In 1970 there
were 0.69 telephones per 100 people
in Kenya, mostly in urban areas. Rural
areas were far less well served, with
only seven telephones per 10,000 people.
During the 1970s, Kenya undertook
a program to reduce the disparity
between urban and rural communications
which involved modernizing existing
facilities, as well as opening 170
new post offices and providing telephone,
telegraph, and telex offices in under-served
areas. By the end of the decade, there
was one post office for every 22,900
inhabitants, compared to one for every
28,800 at its beginning.
A
major telecommunications development
project, funded by the World Bank,
introduced international subscriber
dialing in late 1984. Exchange lines
quickly rose from 70,000 to 106,000.
Kenya's telecommunications are undergoing
privatization; soon the Kenya Posts
and Telecommunication Corporation
will be turned over to private ownership.
The
number of telephone in 1989 was:
337,000
telephones
69
persons per telephone.
The
phone traffic (in millions of calls)
in 1989 was:
Local:
5,737
Long
Distance: 6,799
International:
15,776.
Postal
Service: There are 853 post offices
handle over 210,639,000 pieces of
mail in 1986.
Radio,
Television, and Film: Radio broadcasting
was conducted by the Voice of Kenya
until it was replaced in 1989 by the
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. It
produces and broadcasts programming
in Swahili, English and in 18 ethnic
languages. In 1989, there were 13
people per radio receiver. Kenya has
two television stationsthe government
operated KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation,
formerly the Voice of Kenya) and the
KTN. They produce news shows, situation
comedies, broadcast music performances
and bolster their local programming
with shows from England and the United
States. The Nation Group has been
given a broadcasting license and may
soon begin broadcasting. Kenya had
six television transmitters as of
1987. In 1989, there were 119 people
per television set.
Publishing
and Press: In the 1980s and early
1990s the press was under government
attack. Journalists and editors were
harassed, arrested, and detained for
writing and publishing views critical
of the government or favorable to
the opposition. With muli-party politics
there has been a lifting of censorship
and an expansion of published media.
However, the quality of the new print
media varies greatly. There are currently
five daily newspapers published in
Kenya with a total circulation of
over 280,000. Two of the papers, Kenya
Times and Taifa Leo (published in
Swahili) are operated by KANU. The
Daily Nation, with the largest circulation
of 165,000 is an independent paper
operated by the Aga Khan Nation Group
that maintains a high level of reporting
quality. Other dailies include the
Standard and Kenya Times. In addition
to the daily newspapers, there are
12 weekly and 40 monthly publications
on a variety of subjects from law
reviews to erotica. One example of
a popular monthly magazine is Drum.
On the cover there is a beautiful
girl and features include erotic stories,
advice columns, humor, and social
interest stories. Kenya has a healthy
book publishing industry with over
933 first editions published.
Other
Statistics
Telephones:
357,251 (1989 est.)
Telephone
system: in top group of African systems
domestic:
primarily microwave radio relay
international:
satellite earth stations2 Intelsat
(1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean)
Radio
broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 4, shortwave
0
Radios:
NA
Television
broadcast stations: 6
Televisions:
260,000 (1993 est.)
Source:
CIA World Fact Book
For
Further Reading:
Maja-Pearce,
Adewale. The Press in East Africa:
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania. London, 1992.
Resources researched
by
Abdelaziz Marhoum, & David A. Samper
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