Four Little-Known Women Who Shaped Radio In Kenya

Even though the era of digital disruption has seen digital media evolve, one of the oldest and most popular forms of communication remains the radio, with the potential of reaching billions across the world.

Radio happens to be one of the simplest forms of communication since it is cheap to buy a small radio to listen to anything ranging from news to music to interviews, through your favourite station, at any time, from anywhere.

Every year, billions across the world mark World Radio Day on February 13, proclaimed at UNESCO’s General Conference in 2011, following an initial proposal by Spain. It was unanimously approved the following year by the United Nations General Assembly, which declared it a UN International Day.

In Kenya, radio reaches the most remote parts of the country and the most marginalized people, and is also the one media channel that continues to broadcast when other forms of media go offline, especially during emergencies. Unbeknownst to many, four women helped pioneer FM radio in the country and turned it into the vibrant industry it is today.

Collage of Lynda Holt and Rose Kimotho. /VIRALTEAKE

Viral Tea takes a look at these four women, as also told by Eric Latiff of Spice FM and KTN News:

Elizabeth Omollo

Kenya’s first FM station went on air in 1997. Owned by the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), Metro FM had new, young and fresh presenters and played music throughout without recorded radio programmes as well as had many call-in sessions for fans to interact with the hosts.

The fresh and different station which became the first to broadcast for 24 hours had its first programme controller, Elizabeth Omollo. Many young children of the 80s and 90s knew her voice on Voice of Kenya (VoK) English and National services as the Aunty for “hello children” or the presenter of radio school programmes.

At Metro, Omollo never went on air as this was a younger station and her job was to guide the fresh younger talent. 

Lynda Holt

Just a few months after Metro went on air, Kenya’s first privately owned radio also began broadcasting. Capital FM was the brainchild of Lynda Holt who introduced a whole new world of music tastes to the country.

A media maven and prolific name in the Kenyan media industry, Holt made noble moves at a time when the media realm in the country, especially radio, was still in its infancy. Capital FM was launched on September 16, 1996, at Carnivore Grounds in an event that attracted what she termed as exactly 20,000 people.

Armed with passion and seeing a niche that existed in Kenya, Holt knew she wanted to start a radio station that would be one of a kind. However, she had no prior information about running a radio station and decided to "wing it".

Holt chose the 98.4 frequency as she wanted it to be the proverbial ‘heart’ of Nairobi. At the same time, cognizant of the fact that the standard body temperature is 98.4, she knew she could not settle for any other frequency.

“I had several partners but none of them wanted to invest money in the dream. As such, I had to make the rounds around banks in my quest to land a loan. I was turned down numerously until a local bank came into the picture. The interest was ultra-high, at 24%,” she disclosed during a past interview with the station. 

The station is hugely revered for being a mega career launching pad for media personalities, all of whom credit it for the same. Fareed Khimani, Eve D’ Souza, Caroline Mutoko, Jimmy Gathu, Zain Verjee, Jeff Koinange, Pinky Ghelani, Anita Nderu, James Wokabi among others who credit their media careers to stints at Capital FM.

Anneke Slingerland

Before 1999, religious programming used to be served in doses of 30-minute or a few-hour shows, until Anneke and her husband Leo Slingerland launched Family FM - Kenya’s first 24-hour Christian radio with its sister Family TV.

Family’s offering was different from the other recorded gospel shows; great music mix and content. Its mission is to create and publish compelling media on all possible channels that inspire and encourages the audience to have a meaningful relationship with Christ and to build up a daily relationship with Jesus. 

Sadly, Slingerland died in 2021.

Rose Kimotho

In December 1999, just as the world awaited the Millennium Bug to come and devour computers at the turn of the century, Kameme FM was launched as the first 24-hours vernacular station in the country.

The gutsy woman behind this move was Rose Kimotho who had shut off naysayers and dared to launch a Kikuyu station at the height of the late Kenya's second President Daniel Arap Moi-era multiparty politics.

Many thought she would be visited by State agents to silence her, but she soldiered on. The station found an audience thirsty for vernacular identity and by the end of 2020, Kameme FM was among the top radio stations in the country by listenership.

Kimotho’s career in media started at The Weekly Review as a journalist in 1978. The newsroom was where she first had a taste of gender-based discrimination, as she was assigned to cover art and beadwork as her male counterparts covered hard-hitting topics such as politics.

“I joined with [fellow apprentice] Peter, who was immediately assigned to the political desk – he was put in the thick of things, while I was put in the gentle side covering art and beadwork. That was my first encounter with gender discrimination in the newsroom,” she told over 180 female journalists from across East Africa at a 2021 mentorship event.

Kimotho soon moved into the world of marketing and excelled at Ogilvy, a leading agency where she started as a copywriter. Between 1990 and 1994, she helmed the operations of another top agency’s Nairobi office, McCann, as General Manager. The media bug, however, stayed with her and she set up Regional Reach Ltd in 1994.

Kameme became a top-rated station among Kikuyu-speaking Kenyans in Nairobi and the Mt. Kenya region. Building on the success of Kameme, Kimotho turned her focus to television and K24 was launched in 2007. It was fashioned as Kenya’s first all-news TV station.

K24 brought on board top presenters including Koinange and Louis Otieno who was then flying high. However, it was hit hard by the post-election violence that followed the disputed 2007/08 polls sending it into financial ruin.

It had an overdraft facility from a local bank which the station was unable to service. Eventually, K24 and Kameme had to be sold and they were acquired in 2009 by Kenyatta-family linked firm TV Africa Holdings.

Kimotho bounced back in 2011 with a new venture, 3 Stones TV – the country’s first Kikuyu-language TV station. In 2022, she also unveiled a new Kikuyu radio station 91.0 FM with a slate of popular presenters, some of whom previously worked at Kameme.

"I am blessed to have worked for all four of them, each at the point of launching their stations with the exception of Capital FM which I joined many years after launch but for which I worked the longest in my career," Latiff stated.

Collage of Elizabeth Omollo and Anneke Slingerland. /VIRALTEAKE