Africa-Press – Kenya. Mt Kenya TV
is still off air a month and two weeks after it was ordered to shut down for airing inappropriate content on a children’s program.
Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) had directed the station to go off air from midday Wednesday, April 28 for a minimum period of four weeks but the station is yet to resume operations.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, a highly placed source at the media house, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, stated that the station was taking time to put its house in order.
“We are re-locating to a bigger and better studio,” the source stated.
The insider added that the station was also finalising on the compliance demands and estimated that it would be back on air before the end of the month.
The source suspected that a malicious individual could have queued in the inappropriate content on the server. Without the intel, another employee is said to have aired it following internet instability.
“There needed to be content and the internet was wavering so the programmer went to the server to check on the cartoons that had been saved and aired it without previewing,” the employee stated.
While issuing the directive on April 28, 2021, CAK had imposed a fine of Ksh500,000 noting that the station had compliance issues that had been raised and asked that they be resolved within 30 days.
The station was ordered to review its internal controls on access to the system for queuing and scheduling of its programmes to prevent the reoccurrence of the issue.
Further CAK directed that staff undergo training on programming code within seven days.
“The timing of airing such explicit content disguised as a children’s program is a serious offense…it exposes children to adult experiences,” Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) boss Ezekiel Mutua stated.
Mt Kenya TV
had issued an apology to its viewers after concerns raised by Kenyans over explicit content aired during the watershed period.
