wfn.org | Kenyan Adventists To Start Radio and TV Station

[Christian B. Schäffler (APD Schweiz)]

May 15, 2005

Adventist Press Service (APD)

Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief APD

Fax +41-61-261 61 18

APD@stanet.ch

http://www.stanet.ch/APD

CH-4003 Basel, Schweiz

 

 

Kenyan Adventists To Start Radio and TV Station 

 

Nairobi/Kenya.	  The East African Union of the Seventh-day Adventist 

Church (SDA) has announced, that the church will start Christian 

Radio and TV stations in Kenya later this year, reports the national 
daily newspaper Kenya Times.

 

Pastor Peter Ondari Bwana, executive secretary of the SDA Union, 

said that the church was set to spend Sh 60m to build two radio 

and TV transmitting stations in Kisii and Kitui towns. He explained 

the Kisii transmitting station was initially scheduled to cover 

Nyanza Province, parts of South Rift like Kericho, Bomet and Trans 

Mara Districts and some regions of Tanzania. The Kitui station, he 

added, would cover the Eastern Province and surrounding areas. 

 

"The Ugandan government has already allocated to the church 

frequencies and licenses to start rolling in the whole country. 

We intend to cover the entire East Africa Union which includes 

parts of Somalia, once we get enough funds to install powerful 

boosters that will enable signals to reach the entire region," 

Bwana said. 

 

Peter Bwana, accompanied by SDA Nyamira Conference executive 

director Pastor Richard M. Nyakego, Executive Secretary Pastor 

Samwel Onchwari and the district pastor of Nyamira, Thomas 

Nyakundi, were speaking at Nyamira Central SDA church on May 9. 

 

Nyakego precised that the two stations would operate for 24 hours 

and would broadcast only Christian programmes and news. The 

church leaders asked the local congregations in Kenya to contribute 

towards the completion of the broadcasting stations, saying the 

church's Union Mission would be likely in danger to lose the 

government licenses if transmission was not begun by the end of 

the year. "We are planning to be on the air as from October 2005 

in order to avoid losing transmission licenses, since frequencies 

are limited," said Pastor Nyakego. 

 

Once established, the Seventh-day Adventist Radio would be the 

third Christian broadcaster after Sauti Ya Rehema (SAYARE) in 

Eldoret and Nairobi based Family TV.

 

The Seventh-day Adventist church, a world-wide protestant 

mainstream denomination, owns or operates nearly 100 AM and FM 

stations in numerous countries. While these services are 

independent of Adventist World Radio (AWR), they are sometimes 

in affiliation with AWR, and often carry AWR programs. Adventist 

World Radio, the international radio broadcast arm of the Adventist 

church, grew from it's first 10 languages in 1971, to its current 

total of more than 50 languages broadcasting 1,200 hours each week.