Vernacular Radio and Democracy in Kenya: A Historical Reconstruction of Audiences' Usage of Kass and Inooro Radio Stations in Uasin Gishu District

Communication informs the way humans perceive, understand and construct their view of reality and the world. Thus, communication between people is essential to peace, order, political stability and democracy. This study examines how the vernacular radios in Kenya covered the 2007 General Election and its resultant postpoll violence. It seeks to illustrate and explain the vernacular radios’ scope and capacity in supporting democracy in post-conflict Kenya. A historical reconstruction of audiences’ usage of radio content and how it affected them is undertaken. This research was intended to provide a window through which the following objectives were interrogated: the role of vernacular radio in the democratic process in Kenya; the audiences’ perceptions, feelings and attitudes towards vernacular radio operations and democracy; audiences use of information received from vernacular radio; the factors that impede vernacular radio capacity to promote democracy in Kenya; the main challenges faced by a vernacular radio in an ethnically diverse democratic nation state. Finally, it explored the appropriate policies for vernacular radio operation in an ethnically diverse country like Kenya. To explain the scope and capacity of vernacular radio as a democratic tool, the targeted population came from selected audiences of Kass and Inooro radios in Uasin-Gishu District. An ex-post facto (posttest-only) research design was used and triangulation method of data collection adapted. Data was gathered from a selected sample defined by age and listening to the radio. The study is grounded on McCombs and Shaw’s AgendaSetting theory of the press. To test how communication predicts behaviour, vernacular radio usage is taken as an independent variable which illuminates on the interplay between communication and action (audiences’ behaviour). The unit of analysis is the individual who is reached through survey questions. Both primary and secondary data were used. Data analysis utilized inferential and descriptive statistics. Two major findings emerge from this research. First, 93% of all audiences perceived vernacular radio as an important ally in providing information which can be used in decision making and improving the democratisation process in Kenya. Second, vernacular radio is an important agenda setter. This is evidenced by the near perfect correlation (0.888 Spearman’s correlation) between the perceived radio support for a candidate and the audience’s support for the same candidate. However, there is need to regulate how they operate because their content is capable of either building or destroying society. It also emerged that, audiences’ narrow world-view, the wide social distance between people co-habiting in the same geographical space, and irresponsible journalism undermine democracy in Kenya. The study recommends that, there is need to encourage the use of vernacular radio and to factor it in the policies tackling democracy in a post-conflict setting in Kenya. Despite its downside, vernacular radio is a resourceful terrain that can broaden the people’s worldview on matters of democracy and diversity.