Hundreds of Kenyan villages access TV service through Chinese aid

 

At the 2015 China-Africa Cooperation Forum in Johannesburg, China’s President Xi Jinping initiated an assistance project to help more people across Africa to access television services.

The plan aimed to provide 10,000 villages in over African 30 countries with satellite television reception.

Now, satellite television is available in more than 800 villages in Kenya, one of the first countries to get on board the project.

Michael Ng’ang’a from the Kenyan village of Uthiru just turned on the TV and sat down on the sofa to enjoy his favorite time of the day.

Years ago when Kenya made the switch from analogue to digital television broadcasts, the Ng’ang’a family switched their TV set off.

The family runs a modest shoe-repair business, and the cost of installing a digital receiver was beyond their reach.

But thanks to a free receiver provided by the program, television has again become a part of their lives.

“In the past, we had no television signal, so the children had to go to the neighbors if they wanted to watch television. But since they installed these devices for us, we can watch television again, both Chinese and local programs. I love watching Chinese television shows, and my children are fond of Chinese Kung Fu movies and cartoons. We really appreciate this,” Ng’ang’a says.

In June last year, the television connection project was officially launched in Kenya at a cost of more than 8.4 million U.S. dollars.

There are plans for it to be rolled out to 800 villages across the country’s 47 prefectures.

Besides local families, public institutions such as schools and clinics have also been included in the program.

Wang Qianxu is the deputy manager of Star Times Kenya, the Chinese company running the project.

“We set up television connections in three public places and 20 households in each village. For the three public places, we provide one 32-inch TV set plus solar panel that can power the TV when there’s no electricity. The other two sets are projectors. These are all free and people can access more than 20 channels. For the local households we provide satellite receivers and set-top boxes,” Wang says.

The two local schools in the village of Uthiru now both have TV sets in their libraries thanks to the project.

A teacher says the TVs have been a great help for teaching the students, as some of them don’t have a TV set at home.

“We often use the TV set when we teach science and Swahili. We want to let the children take a look at what is happening in the outside world. Through television, they can better understand the content of the course, especially when we have social science courses. The teachers also make their own slides and show them on the TV. This program has brought a lot of benefits to the children,” the teacher explains.

In Kenya, where transportation is difficult in many parts of the country, the maintenance of television connections is a big problem.

To guarantee a consistent service, StarTimes Kenya trained two repairmen in each village in case the equipment malfunctions.

1,600 local people have so far been trained as technicians.