As I reflect on the role radio has played in my life, I am amazed as I realized how radio has informed my life and influenced me.
As a young girl in lower primary school, it was radio that taught me Math, English, history, science, Geography etc. I vividly remember that big radio that would be placed at the front of the class. It was always a moment of pride for that child who was chosen to carry that radio from the staff room for the lesson. On many occasions, I was that girl. We listened to the radio teacher more attentively than we did to the class teacher present with us in person.
The society accepted and still accepts radio as an authoritative voice. We tune in to the radio to know what time it is. Anything the radio said had to be true, after all “the radio said it.” It was like that love song my older sister loved to listen to on radio in our language. Loosely translated, it went something like this; “If I were the one who speaks on the radio, you my darling would never pay taxes.” That is authority. Can you imagine that if the radio said Ndegi Gatere would never pay taxes that would be that. Oh, how I wish I could hear that! It is a mirage, I know! Until recently government officials were appointed and fired on radio. The letter comes later. Sometimes much later. Those were the days.
It is no wonder then that one of the first things I bought with my first salary, more of an allowance really was a radio. At that time, I did not know that I would end up spending my working career and ministry around radio work, but God knew.
My journey to radio began before I knew it, on the day my uncle, Godfrey Nguru, picked me up from High school after my A level exams. My uncle and I had been on this road countless times in six years. On the journey to or from school, he talked about two things, hard work and perseverance. It was tough for me being so far from home but my good grades in the certificate of Primary education (CPE) had earned me a place in one of Kenya’s top and high-cost girls’ High school. As a lover of education that he is to this day, he would not let me miss that opportunity, even if that meant taking me under his wings. Anyway, on the day he picked me after my last exams, the conversation was about something else, about this Christian university he had joined after listening to a sermon at Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC),
now Citam Valley Road. The Pastor, Roy Upton had been doing a series on “whom shall I send, who will go for us.” from Isaiah 6:8. Upton was urging congregants to leave the comfort of Nairobi and go and serve God in Northeastern Province of Kenya. He said teachers could go and teach in Northeastern, lawyers could go, and practice there and so could the Christian doctors. As a university lecturer, at Kenyatta college (later Kenyatta University) my uncle could not go to Northeastern, but his opportunity came when he saw a small advert in the Sunday Nation Newspaper for a job in Christian college that was starting a degree programme. He applied and ended up at Daystar college that was offering degrees from Messiah College. And this was the conversation on our way from Limuru Girls when I finished my ‘A’ levels.
When my results came, I joined the group of those who missed university entrance by a single point. To say I was disappointed is understatement. I cried as one who had lost my best friend. After the storm had passed, he asked me if I would consider joining Daystar. I remember telling him he can’t afford it and him asking me to take a step of faith. The alternative was to apply for a clerk position at Kenya Power where my aunt worked as an Executive Secretary.
I chose Daystar to study Communications with a minor in Community Development. The degree would be from Messiah College in U.S.A. It was then a small college where everybody knew everybody. I vividly remember we were only 6 of us who had come straight from high school. The others were mature students.
It is here that I began to write, first for the college paper, Involvement, and then my uncle (who hated idleness of any form) introduced me to his friend Bedan Mbugua of Beyond Magazine for internship. It was here that I cut my teeth in authoring political stories. Before long I was writing for STEP, another Christian Magazine. With these by-lines under my belt, one of my lecturer’s Gilbert Okorokwo got me an internship with the Associated Press Bureau at Chester House on Nairobi’s Koinange street. The bureau chief was Jerry Gray. This one was a paid internship, and I was covering serious stories. I remember dashing to Intercontinental hotel to cover a press conference with John Garang of South Sudan and many such high-profile assignments.
By this time, my small university community, including the Principal Dr. Talitwala recognized my writing skills. ( I ended up taking home the trophy
for best communications student) One day I found a note in my pigeonhole from the Principal. In his note he asked me to contact Rev. Stephen Boakye- Yiadom of Trans World Radio for a writing job. I was curious and a bit hesitant as I had not written for radio and had not taken any broadcast courses. Still, when I shared this that evening during family devotions, they encouraged me to try it. Again, I remember my uncle asking me, ‘if you do not try it, how will you know whether or not you will like it.’ I had never heard of Trans World Radio before, and I could not even pronounce the name of the man I was to meet but I made the call and went.
When I met Rev. Stephen Boakye- Yiadom who I learned was the General Secretary for Africa, he shared with great excitement this project (Africa Challenge) that the ministry was embarking on that would change the lives of so many in Africa. The following day, he was at Daystar with a topic for my first ever radio script.
That is how I entered the world of Radio. And it happened that one day during my internship before I had graduated, I got an appointment letter for a full-time job. To be continued…..