Govt. starves KBC advertising revenue

Written By:Nelly Moraa,    Posted: Tue, Aug 30, 2011


A cumulative report on government expenditure on advertisement in Media houses has indicated that the government has continued to starve the state broadcaster Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) of advertising revenue.

The report indicates that the bulk of expenditure on advertisement by key ministries has favored the private media as reflected in the report which covers advertisement expenditure covering 2005 to date.

Of the 974, 224,133 million shillings spent by the various government ministries on advertising, KBC has only received 41.4 million shillings since 2005 compared to Nation media which received 382 million shillings and standard group 265.3 million shillings over the same period.

Royal Media Services eceived 68.2 million shillings more than 25 million over what the state broadcaster makes from various ministries.

The Ministries of Information and Communications, Transport, National Heritage, Office of the Vice President, Gender and Social Development, Special Programs, Medical Services, Northern Kenya, Regional Development Authorities, Local Government, Finance, East African Community, Trade, Water Services, the Judiciary and the State Law Office  are singled out in the report as having spent nothing on KBC in advertising expenditure.

They have instead spent a huge chunk of their revenue in print and sections of the private media.

Ministries that have advertised a fraction of their services on KBC are the Office of the President that has spent a total of 15.1 million shillings since the 2005/2006 financial year todate.

The Ministry of Agriculture has spent 14.1million shillings advertising in KBC since 2005 while the office of the Prime Minister 1million shillings and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports spending 7.8 million shillings, Co-operatives 594,000 shillings.

The matter came up during question time where Naivasha MP John Mututho demanded a breakdown of government expenditure on advertisements in each media house from 2005 by top 20 ministries.

Information Assistant Minister Dhadho Godana said the government has no authority to control or monitor government expenditure on advertisement in media houses.

He however said the matter should be addressed by the Prime Minister and not his office.

House Speaker Marende directed the issue to the PM.