Kenyan students, unable to attend school, tune in to the ‘Elimika’ programmes on Amani FM

by Jon Hargreaves

With Kenyan schools now unlikely to reopen until January 2021, radio has become an educational life-line for many families across the country. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Amani FM, HCR’s partner station in Eastern Kenya, in collaboration with Zizi Afrique Foundation, has been delighting children and parents across Tana Delta, with a variety of education programmes. Nine hundred solar-powered radio sets were also distributed around different communities to enable group listening.

“The radio programmes, called “Elimika”, which means ‘educate yourself’, is now one of the most popular programmes on Amani FM,” says station manager Harriet Atyang. “We cater for children up to 17 years of age with different types of programmes, giving students an opportunity to interact and share their learning,” she added.

The radio programmes will become increasingly important in the coming months with uncertainty over the academic year for 2020. President Uhuru Kenyatta today instructed his Cabinet Secretary George Magoha, to notify Kenyas that primary and secondary schools will resume in January next year with a phased reopening of colleges and universities.

The initial plan was for schools to reopen in September, however Mr Magoha explained that the January reopening was due to medical advice because the spike of the infection was expected to occur in September.

(Browse HCR Covid-19 resources and communications advice)