In 1959 the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) was established by the British colonial administration, with the objective of providing radio and television broadcasting. The proposal for the formation of a public corporation had been submitted by a commission appointed earlier in the year to report on the advantages and disadvantages of a television service for Kenya, and the impact of such a service on radio broadcasting. The 1959 Proud Commission rejected earlier findings by another commission in 1954 that television was "economically impracticable in Kenya" and concluded that the new medium was likely to be financially self-reliant if it were set up as a full-fledged commercial outfit.

     Between 1959 and 1961, and in keeping with the Proud Commission's recommendations, the colonial administration contracted a consortium of eight companies to build and operate a television service. The eight firms, seven of which were from Europe and North America, formed Television Network Ltd., which was charged with the responsibility of setting up the national television broadcasting system. The consortium, cognizant of the irreversible developments to­ ward Kenya's political independence, created the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation as an autonomous public organization. The idea was to have the corporation wield as much independence as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). By the end of 1962, a transmission station and recording studio had been set up in Kenya, and television was officially launched the following year.

     The corporation created by the consortium bore a striking resemblance to the BBC. It drew its revenue from advertising, annual license fees on receiver sets, and government subsidies. The vision of financially self-sustaining television service was, however, misplaced, especially since the new medium failed to attract as much advertising as the older and more popular radio broadcasting service. Within the first full financial year of television broadcasting (July 1963 to June 1964), the corporation posted a loss of nearly $1 million and had to resort to government loans and supplemental appropriations to remain afloat. Coincidentally, Kenya had gained independence, and the new government, worried about the threat to national sovereignty posed by the foreign ownership of the broadcasting apparatus, decided to nationalize the corporation in June 1964. After the takeover, the corporation was renamed Voice of Kenya (VoK) and was converted to a department under the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting, and Tourism (later renamed Ministry of Information and Broadcasting). VoK's new role, as the government mouthpiece, was to provide information, education, and entertainment. While the government adopted a capitalist approach to economic development, which embraced private-sector participation in all areas of the economy and even welcomed participation in a number of electronic broadcasting activities, private ownership of broadcasting concerns was disallowed.

     Between 1964 and 1990, television and radio were owned and controlled by the state, and the two media exercised great caution in reporting politically sensitive news. During this period, several attempts were made to move away from the established broadcasting system. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting replaced annual license fees with a one-time permit fee, and the drive for commercial self-sustenance was replaced by a politically inspired initiative for increased local content and a sharper nationalistic outlook. The objective was elusive, however, as the VoK television was only able to achieve 40 percent local­ programming content by the mid- 1980s, well below the target of 70 percent local content. Television also failed to become an authoritative national medium: studies in 1985 showed that only 17 percent of the electronic media audience regarded television as the best source of information, compared to 86 percent who rated radio as their prime news source.

     Several reasons have been advanced for poor performance of television in Kenya. Besides being a preserve of the educated minority in the country, the spread of ownership of television sets has been severely curtailed by the poor penetration of the national electrical power grid. Even worse is the poor transmission the country received from the 55 small transmission and booster stations, whose weak signals generally cover small areas or are constrained by the country's rugged topography. As such, household audiences have been growing mainly within the major urban areas, or near large rural centers served by electricity and near a booster station. 

     In 1989 the VoK was renamed Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and accorded semi-autonomous status founded on the premise that it would adopt a more commercially oriented stance. Although the corporation unveiled grandiose plans to expand news coverage and improve local programming content. it was unable to chart out an independent editorial position, and it is still widely seen as a part of the government propaganda machinery. However, sone progress has been made in increased weekly on-air periods, and enhancement of color transmission. Un­ til the early 1990s, the corporation relied on cheap but time-consuming air-mail services for the supply of foreign news footage, even though the country was serviced by Intelsat. Since 1994, the corporation has been retransmitting large chunks of the BBC World Service Television several nights per week. A second KBC channel launched in 1995 is a joint venture between the KBC and MultiChoice Sor.th Africa; this channel mainly transmits movies and international sports.

     Liberalization has been slow and inconsistent. In March 1990, a second television station, the Kenya Television Network (KTN), commenced operations, offering a mixture of relayed retransmission of CNN programming and light entertainment. KTN was initiated as a joint venture between Kenya's ruling party, Kanu, and the London-based Maxwell Communications, but the British media group withdrew after the death of its founder, Robert Maxwell. Baraza Ltd.­ owners of the East African Standard and Capital FM radio station-acquired KTN in the late 1990s. Even though it is privately owned, KTN has been unable to provide independent news coverage because of excessive political interference with its editorial direction, a problem that forced its management to scrap the transmission of local news for more than a year, between 1993 and 1994. About 95 percent of the station's programs are foreign, mainly because most of its 24-hour service is a retransmission of the CNN signal.

     A second private station, Cable Television Network (CTN), launched in March 1994, has also failed to inspire major changes in Kenya's television industry. CTN unsuccessfully tried to build a subscriber base in Nairobi via overhead cables passed along existing electrical power pylons. Its intermittent transmissions have so far comprised Indian drama and films. A third private station, Stellavision TV, was licensed in the early 1990s and went on air in 1999 with primarily foreign films and entertainment.

     The enactment of the Kenya Communications Act in 1998 signaled the beginning of deregulation of the airwaves in earnest. The law created the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) as an independent regulatory authority for broadcasting, telecommunications, and postal services. CCK is responsible for licensing, broadcast-frequency allocations, ownership and control regulation, and enforcement of fair practices. The act also provides for the transformation of KBC into a national public service broadcaster in both radio and television.

     The latest entrants into the television market area Citizen TV and Nation TV. Citizen TV, owned by Royal Media, was licensed in 1997 and began transmission in 1999. Problems with government saw its license temporarily withdrawn in 2001. African Broadcasting Ltd., a subsidiary of the Nation Media Group, owns Nation TV. The station was licensed in 1998 and went on air in December 1999. Five other TV licenses have been given out since 1999, two of which are for religious broadcasting. As of 2002, these channels had not yet gone on air. The licensing of private stations, however, says little about Kenya's commitment to liberalizing the airwaves. The government has previously refused to license operators on the grounds that broadcasting frequencies are inadequate, and for fear of losing control over the information-dissemination process.

     Owing to the centralized nature of Kenyan television, only a handful of small production houses have been set up in the country. Most local productions are from the KBC teams and the government camera crew located in provincial headquarters. Virtually all programs are in either English or Swahili; English is the programming language used during two-thirds of all airtime. Most of the small production houses concentrate on commercials and documentary filming. Lately, however, a few production houses have been formed that target programming opportunities as the region liberalizes its airwaves.