Eliud Owalo's Plan To Change KBC Back To VoK

Information, Communication & Technology, and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary (CS) nominee Eliud Owalo has proposed drastic reforms to the state-owned media house, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC).

Appearing before the National Assembly's Committee on Appointments on Friday, October 21, Owalo questioned the sustainability of the media house which has since been overpowered by private media houses in Kenya, despite its long-standing popularity in the country.

While responding to questions by the vetting committee on the same, he expressed that if appointed, he intends to overhaul KBC as a key area of interest for which he stated he should be held accountable.

"Something needs to be done about KBC. It is ironic that KBC with its strong brand and wide network of infrastructure is today punching below its weight in the marketplace.

"With respect to KBC, it will be one of my key areas of intervention once I come into the office. I intend to revitalise the operations of KBC first by rebranding it," he said.

On the subject of rebranding, Owalo criticised the station's rebranding from the Voice of Kenya (VoK). It was named the latter in 1964 when Kenya became a republic before being changed to KBC in 1989 and became the mouthpiece of the government during the tenure of Kenya's second president, the late Daniel Arap Moi.

He suggested that by reverting the name KBC to VoK, the media house would go back to the days whereby it was a market leader in Kenya's media industry.

"We can strengthen or leverage ICT to re-engineer the content of KBC so that it gets effective positioning in the market. We need to revitalise its infrastructure so that it can be benchmarked with global best practices in the media industry," he added.

On the issue of pay, Owalo stated that government institutions need to move away from depending on the exchequer, giving an example of the overhauling of KBC until it is able to pay salaries which match prevailing market rates and eventually proposing a pay structure to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to attract talent.

"We need to look at staff motivation at KBC. I believe that our remuneration architecture should be informed by an objective job evaluation exercise.

"The guiding principle should be the ability to pay. If KBC was turned around and it has the ability to pay, nothing would stop them from telling SRC these are the new salaries to enable them to attract and retain the staff they have," he stated.

His sentiments were however challenged by Samburu West Member of Parliament, Naisula Lesuuda who reminded him about the previous rebrands done by KBC and suggested a look at talent as well as staff motivation as well as bureaucracy, which is termed as one of the silent killers of the state broadcaster.

A section of Kenyans also criticised Owalo's suggestion, arguing that the rebranding of the station has not done much to turn around KBC's fortunes.

In July 2021, the media house underwent a top-to-bottom rebranding and poached exciting talents who have previously been news anchors at rival TV stations, two of them from K24 being Shiksha Arora and Caren Kibbett contributing to one of the biggest drivers of traffic on their TV stations and social media channels.

News Anchors Unveiled By KBC TV During a Relaunch Done on July 21, 2021. /KBC

President William Ruto previously hinted at overhauling the media house during his term, stating that with it running as a commercial entity, the station based at Harry Thuku road, Nairobi would regain its glory as the great media house it was once known for across the country for its excellence in journalism.

"It must operate differently, otherwise nobody is going to advertise, we must run KBC as a commercial entity, it must make money, it must run itself we cannot continue to fund KBC from public coffers,” Ruto stated on KTN News during a town hall meeting on July 7 at Serena Hotel, Nairobi.

“The problem of KBC in the past is that it became a mouthpiece of whoever was in government and it lost credibility, it must keep to being objective, it must keep being balanced, it cannot be a place where they report the President from morning to evening."