CS Owalo Hints At Govt Cutting Spending On Media Houses

Information, Communication & Technology, and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary (CS) Eliud Owalo on Wednesday, July 5 hinted at the Kenya Kwanza government trimming spending on advertising through media houses.

Speaking to Citizen TV's Jeff Koinange during the JKLive show, Owalo faulted the government's continuous splashing of millions of shillings on advertisements in the private sector at the expense of cheaper options, despite disseminating State advertisements falling under his docket.

The CS believed that it was not the duty of the government to fund media houses, who in turn, should not be solely relying on the government to generate revenue to sustain their operations.

"It is not the role of the government to finance the media. It so happens that the government has been advertising in the media but the government cannot be the single source of revenue for the media.

"Some of the plans I have as the CS responsible for that functional mandate, I don’t see why the government should continue spending the amounts of money that it has been spending on advertisement revenue," he opined.

Owalo believed that the time has come for the media to reorient itself in the digital age through strategic agility and manoeuvrability in that operational environment, which would be key to the Fourth Estate's survival.

As a result, he hinted at re-engineering the operations of the Government Advertising Agency (GAA) more so with respect to the amount of money the government spends on advertisement revenue, arguing that the reach media houses have collectively cannot align with those of essential government entities.

"The reach of the media houses cannot match the reach of the Postal Corporation of Kenya. We spend about Ksh60 million in the private sector to print My Gov.

"I can use a government entity to print My Gov at Ksh3 million. The government has been losing that money, and nobody has cared to take corrective action, I’m coming in to introduce change for the good of Kenyans," he assured, hinting at initiating those plans in the not-so-distant future despite assuring that the government was not against the media.

He added "Anything I do as the ICT CS must make sense from a business perspective. I won't continue spending that large amount of money on advertising revenue in this digital age. It doesn't make sense to me and once I get approval from relevant levels I will definitely introduce certain changes."

Owalo further called on the press to think out of the box and find new revenue streams to sustain their businesses, arguing that they cannot cling to traditional ways of doing business in a digital economy and expect to rely on government revenue.

To further push his point across, Owalo added that even if the government follows through with the plan, the media will not become redundant.

Owalo's sentiments came amidst pressure from some politicians and Kenya Kwanza government officials to reduce the heavy spending on government advertisements through the media.

His Trade counterpart, Moses Kuria, threatened that any government official who placed an advertisement on the Nation Media Group (NMG) risked losing their job.

“I want to tell Nation Media, you need to choose whether you are a newspaper, broadcasting house or an opposition party. From today, not even tomorrow, if any government department advertises with Nation Media, know you are on your way home," he announced.

The basis of Kuria's criticism towards NMG was a report that claimed that Ksh6 billion in oil funds were abused through botched tenders issued by the Trade and Agriculture ministries. However, it was his sustained attacks against the media that earned him backlash from different stakeholders.

Gatundu South Member of Parliament (MP) Gabriel Kagombe on Saturday, July 1 revealed that he would introduce a Bill in the National Assembly seeking to reduce government advertisements on mainstream media.