VERNACULAR RADIO STATIONS ENINES OF DEVELOPMENT IN KENYA

VERNACULAR RADIO STATIONS ENINES OF DEVELOPMENT IN KENYA
By John Cheruiyot
A Mr.Kimutai made the following observation in Gotabgaa a US based online forum:
“Retired President Moi has urged the Government to ban vernacular radio stations. His reason is that the stations were creating tribal chiefs and disseminating divisive politics and messages that could incite anarchy and genocide as... in Rwanda . ”
He concluded:
“Moi should retire and enjoy his loot, his advice or suggestion do not hold water any more”
Such a bold observation is a trend that has emerged since the internet and the FM radio phenomenon emerged in the 21s century.
FM technology is a revolution in both rural and urban slum Kenya . It has propelled vernacular radio stations making English and Kiswahili stations almost irrelevant.
No wonder over 80% of Kenyans are neither competent nor eloquent in English and Kiswahili. Both Kiswahili and English radio stations appeal to the elite and the ruling class urbanites who for over four decades have used ignorance and foreign languages to lock out the bulk of the populace from the mainstream socio-economic dispensation in Kenya .
More so in Rift Valley where for 24 years the Rift Valley Mafia called shots. They never allowed the NGO world and the civil society to inject the ideas of freedom and creativity in the region. Of the over 4000 NGOs in the country hardly 100 of them are in the expansive Rift Valley Province .
The emergence of KassFM a Kalenjin vernacular station with a sister station in Washington DC has been a revolution among the over 5million Kalenjin listners.
In 2005 It was banned by the government for few days during the Referndum.The government backed the Wako Draft was voted out vehemently by the region
.
The KassFM and other vernacular stations are enjoying overwhelming support among all the 42 communities in Kenya . Should the government ban them for one reason or another the masses across the board may unite to compel the government to lift such ban.
The reason behind the call for the banning of the vernacular radio stations is simply because the masses have been enlightened by the stations to the extend that the old order has been phased out. The politics of money and hand outs during past general elections where the super rich enjoyed the upper hand were shattered last year.
This explains why in Rift Valley among the Kalenjin community real political power houses were voted out mercilessly.
Among the casualties were the iron man [Karnet]-Nicolas Biwott, the axe [Aiwet] of Cheragani former minister for Agriculture Kipruto Arap Kirwa, the darling son of the retired president Gideon Moi and other Kanu diehards like Nick Salat.
How did vernacular radio stations deliver the hoi polloi from the fangs of ignorance and bribery?
The intelligentsia for the first time moved to such radio stations to lecture the masses in their mother tongue. Radio stations became universities while villages became lecture halls. For example KassFM Washington DC brought together Kalenjin academics in Diaspora through teleconferencing to pump new and revolutionary ideas into the villages of Kalenjin community. Through the able leadership of Dr.Kipkoech Sambu-Egyptiologist of repute, KassFM Washington DC station became to the Kalenjin what NASA has been to the US space exploration.
Grand topics like leadership,economic s,politics, theology, anthropology, technology, law,Egyptiology, cosmology,entrepren eurship,medicine ,globalization name it were explored. These fields via FM radio via vernacular delivered a revolution. The old order was demolished. Formerly powerful individuals were made dinosaurs.
FM radio and the internet are the twin pillars of digital age. Digital age will bring down traditional gurus and their mantra.
English and Kiswahili will not be the only media of communication. Others like Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Maa, Luo, Luhya, Mijikenda, Kamba, Turkana and Oromo languages of Kenya are emerging to take their rightful prominent roles.
The studies by UNESCO have shown that vernacular languages globally are the real tools of invention and discovery. This may explain why Asian nations have emerged to global prominence in commerce, manufacturing, and technology.
In China and Japan for instance Chinese and Japanese languages are the media of instruction from kindergarten to university. Unlike Africa and Kenya where colonial languages still call shots.
The internet is a handy tool for vernacular; sooner than later search engines in global mother tongues will be a trend.
The rise of English as a colonial and global language was a product of British conguests of the world and native languages of the peoples of the planet Earth.
The internet thus is a savour of native languages of the world.
The need to up grade all the indigenous languages of Kenya to be at par with English and Kiswahili is long over due. During the imperial and papal rule of Holy Roman Empire that ruled Europe up to 1648 imposed two languages on the peoples of Europe namely Latin and Greek. Native languages of Europe like German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swiss among others were down rated the way African and Kenyan native languages have been marginalized and discard for over a century now.
The vernaculars of Europe brought down imperial languages of the ancient Europe to an extent of extinction by 20th century.Enlish a vernacular of UK upto 1648 became a global langauge by 20th century.Who knew a medium of hoi polloi in 14th -16th centuries would rule the world?Today English is both national and international language like Lain and Greek four centuries ago.
The rise of vernacular languages in Kenya is not a curse to the nation and Africa rather a trend in the right direction.
Indigenous languages should be embraced and given the royalty and the nobility they deserve.
Time as come in Kenya that national and official languages are extended to include all the major and regional languages native to Kenya nation.
English should be at par with Kikuyu, Kamba, Kalenjin, Maa, and other indigenous languages.
South Africa today has 11 national languages where Afrikaan and English are at par with other nine indigenous languages like Sotho, Ndebele and Zulu.
Why should Kenya and Africa continue to down play their native languages in favor of foreign ones more so the colonial European languages?
As Asia ’s star rises they likewise will make their languages rise and rule over others.
The reason why Africa has become the trash of the planet is because she has accepted to kill her native languages, yet the more she becomes foreign in her mannerism and attitudes the backward and slavish she becomes. She masters mimicry and apemanship to her disgrace and backwardness.
Today unfortunately the children of the educated and the westernized elie hardly express themselves in their ancestral mother tongues. They are no better than the children rooted in the mother tongues of our ancestors in creativity and innovation.
The Bible Society of Kenya has done Kenya proud by availing the word of God in almost every language of the people of Kenya .
If the Bible Society of every continent endeavors to make the the Bible the book read and written in all the dialects of the world why can the African ruling elite borrow a leaf or two?
God created all the languages of the world who are the governments of men to down play native languages of the world?
Vernacular radio FM stations should flourish. All the 42 languages of Kenya should prosper.
Some may argue that the numerous languages of the world came to existence after the Tower of Babel when mankind then a monolinguistic conspired to over throw the government of God.
Since nobody after all knows the first language of mankind who has the power to extinct any of our languages?
Our mother tongues are here to stay. If colonialism and communism failed to extinct them who will? The elite?
jcruiyo@yahoo. com