Community radio to facilitate information disemination in Kyuso

By John Njue

Ngura community radio members and stakeholders held a leaders sensitization meeting at Ideal Hotel – Mwingi on 26th and 27th June, 2014 to sensitize leaders on the concept of RANET programme, highlights achievements of Ngura Fm, Deliberate on challenges and obstacles of establishing Ngura Fm and to Deliberate on the way forward on Ngura Fm.

Ngura Fm is a proposed community radio that will be established on a 2 acre land given by the government in Kyuso. Kenya meteorological services (KMS) through RANET programme- Kenya has promised to provide the community with broadcasting equipment and weather measuring equipments and so the mandate of the community and stakeholders is to construct the station, recruit the community reporters and managing the station.

The name Ngura was derived from the genre of Kamba language spoken in the area. It came out that the language spoken in Machakos, Kitui and Makueni is different from the language spoken in the larger Mwingi zone. This is the language that will be used for broadcasting the participants were informed.

The meeting was graced by the Sub-County Administrator in Kyuso sub-county, Mr. Cosmas Musee Mwanzia. He started by the members for find it important to start a local station and urged the stakeholders to actualize the plan because the FM station will ease dissemination of important information even to the interior community and to another target group that had never been targeted by other media. Mr. Musee said that the fact that the weather forecast of the area is generated from Makindu weather station which is several kilometers might be a cause of poor crop and animal production in the area. “If these weather data is collected and disseminated in kyuso, it will have positive impacts on food security” said Musee.

The community radio is aimed at disseminating development of the sub-county as well as empowering the community including and not limited to market information. The community radio compound will also be installed with weather station which is aimed at giving accurate weather forecast which is expected to be more accurate that the one at Makindu weather station which is approximately 308km from kyuso.

 

The station is hoped to ease dissemination of practical important information even to the interior where the level of illiteracy is very high. One of the indicator that the radio will be of much help is that, there will be Community participation /ownership, it’s not for profit nature, it will includes minorities and marginalized populations e.g. youth and disabled, it will use the local language (Kamba) e.t.c.

The meeting was attended by officials from Sub-county administration- County, county government of Kitui, deputy county commissioner, assistant county commissioner, National drought Management Authority (NDMA), Constituency development fund- Mwingi North, members of county assembly- Kyuso Ward, Murky (NGO), Arid lands information network and other community leaders