Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Director General Ezra Chiloba, on Monday, June 19, explained the barriers limiting him from deleting deceptive content aired by the controversial pastor, Paul Mackenzie, on Times TV.
While appearing before the Senate Adhoc Committee investigating the proliferation of rogue religious organisations, Chiloba stated that the authority's hands were tied.
Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana, the committee chairperson, sought clarification on why the misguiding content was still accessible. He also asked Chiloba to break down the process of deleting the content, which was cited as evidence in court after Mackenzie was accused of indoctrinating the faithful and encouraging believers to starve themselves to death.
"Why have you not pulled down the content broadcasted by religious organisations that seem to misguide Kenyans?" Mungatana posed his question.
The committee complained that the content was linked to the death of over 200 people Kenyans in the Shakahola massacre.
On his part, Chiloba defended CA, insisting that the authority did not have the power to rein in on the violations by broadcasters.
According to Chiloba, regulating print media and licensing religious broadcasting stations was outside his jurisdiction.
He explained that religious stations are mainly licensed as commercial and community broadcasters.
Chiloba clarified that the authority is responsible for facilitating the development of the information and communications sectors, including broadcasting, cybersecurity, multimedia, telecommunications, electronic commerce, postal and courier services.
"CA monitors broadcasters' performance against standards outlined in the Programming Code. This is mainly done through sampling, inspections, and complaint-based monitoring. The sampling framework caters to the different programming genres," Chiloba, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) explained.
Additionally, the Director General clarified that monitoring was limited by the geographical reach and capacity to log into systems.
"Currently, we can log in to a total of 140 free-to-air channels and 124 FM radios located in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, and Nyeri," he stated, exposing a loophole in its operations.
He, however, added that the authority was looking to expand the geographical broadcast reach to cover an additional 22 towns by the end of 2023 and an additional 30 towns in 2024.
Chiloba further disclosed that Pastor Ezekiel Odero of New Life Church expressed his desire to acquire Times TV in 2020. However, subsequently, he was granted a license for World Evangelism TV.
Earlier, the two stations came under scrutiny for broadcasting controversial content during the watershed period. CA promptly shared relevant details regarding the two pastors involved with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
Mackenzie was detained, with Pastor Ezekiel released on a Ksh1.5 million cash or Ksh3 million bond as an alternative. He was also ordered to report to the DCI every fortnight and desist from commenting on the Shakahola massacre investigations.
