Abstract While it is officially recognized that Kenya is a multilingual state, necessary mechanisms for the effective management of this diversity have not been effected. With English and Kiswahili occupying the "official language" positions, the other more than forty local languages are excluded and have no "official" recognition. The relatively recent development of vernacular mass media has not only provided an impetus for the re-examination of the status of indigenous languages in Kenya, it has also brought with it opportunities and challenges which are yet to be critically examined. Many questions are being raised regarding the status of the vernacular mass media, their possible influence on the local languages, the possible challenges they raise within the national language policy, and their role in the public domain. This paper addresses these questions and examines the relationship between the vernacular mass media and the Kenyan indigenous languages. Keywords: indigenous languages, language management, vernacular mass media.

Since the 1990s liberal and democratic reforms in African countries, competitive independent and pluralistic broadcastings, particularly radio, have emerged to provide channel and program diversity for the first time in these emerging democracies. Independent radio has become an entree into civic discourse and socio-political awareness and a force for social and political integration and accountability. However, these positive developments have overshadowed the observation that Africa’s emerging independent radio has become an avenue for corroding their societies’ languages and cultures. While they have been insensitive to native languages, they are successful in domesticating the languages of their former European colonizers. Using the experiences of Ghana’s radio, this article raises important questions about the relationship between Africa’s native languages and the development of a true African broadcasting system. It calls for a re-examination of the belief that the multilingua...

The goal of this study was to explore the role of Mtaani Radio’s Kikwetu program in promoting the indigenous content and glooming the local Kenyan entertainment content and the show’s advantages to the residents of Dagoretti region and its surroundings. The station is located in Nairobi’s cosmopolitan area of Dagoretti and has been very phenomenal in promoting the local remote artistes in the areas to a nation recognition. It’s for this reason that the study sought to inquire if the radio in question has had any significant role in promoting the local and indigenous entertainment content in the area of Dagoretti through its Saturday program dubbed Kikwetu Show, as attributed in its slogan ‘Sauti Ya Mtaa’ – Voice of the Community. In addition, the study is premised on the idea that, increasing programming of local content for the people of Dagoretti will in turn give them a chance to consume the content from their locale that will be advancing the location’s voices in form of art. According to this study, the term promotion will be loosely defined as the encouragement of the progress or growth or acceptance of something in the society. Promotion in this paper will be based on the local and indigenous content as far as challenging the content from these local entertainers and its place in the community they come from. The study will as well make an effort to understand how the local content advances the plight of the locals within the context of their location. In order to understand further the role played by Mtaani radio, the study will also try to gauge if the local and indigenous content producers in Dagoretti are also involved in representing the voice of the local people in their works of art and the ability of these local content in making a development impact in the area. The study is guided by the conviction that community radios have a great chance of impacting the local society by enlightening their plight which in most cases is presented in form of a song or spoken work, talking about the situation in the local area where the radio serves and when it is aired, it reaches the authorities in question to take action. To achieve this, the study will make use of both conceptual and theoretical framework in trying to understand the impact of the local station on the target audience and how the locals have used the local content aired in this radio station to hold the authorities accountable for what the locals are being demanded for by the entertain in a piece of art. Detailed literature review will be conducted in line with the objective of the study. In addition, In-depth interviews and questionnaires will be utilized as the data collection instruments. Lastly, data collected from the field will be analyzed accordingly and a summary of the findings will be presented as a final report of the study.