Royal Media Services Chairman SK Macharia Appears Before Senate

Royal Media Services Chairman Samuel Kamau Macharia, popularly referred to as SK Macharia, caused confusion after he appeared before a Senate committee that is collecting views on the Election laws recently passed by the National Assembly.

The Senators were seemingly uncertain on what capacity Dr Macharia had appeared before them to contribute to the ongoing debate on the electoral laws.

However, the media mogul, who has previously been associated with the CORD coalition, started by clarifying that his presence was not in any way political.

Macharia added that he had been nominated to head the Media Owners Association (MOA), where he is a member.

“For the record I am not here on behalf of CORD or on behalf of Jubilee. I am here to lead the delegation from the Media Owners Association,” the wealthy businessman told Senators sitting in the committee.

In his presentation to the legislators, Macharia stated that MOA was supportive of an electoral process that was agreeable to all the political parties.

He also disagreed with Information Communications Technology CS Joe Mucheru that network coverage was needed to transmit election results.

“I heard what Mucheru said and it is not true. In 2002, we transmitted results from every polling stations through the use of satellite phones that were provided to us by USAID,” the MOA Chairman stated.

He proposed that a complimentary electrical backup be introduced in voter recognition such that those who are not identified by the Biometric Voter Identification (BVI) kits are made to wait until the electronic backup is brought to the polling station.