KBC Eastern Service

KBC Eastern Service is the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation's radio service for speakers of Borana, Rendille, Burji and Turkana. Most of these listeners live in northern Kenya, in counties such as Marsabit, Isiolo and Turkana, and the service gives them public radio in their own languages.

The Eastern Service dates from 1972, so it is older than all of the corporation's FM vernacular stations, which began with Coro FM in December 2000. It has a partner service, the KBC Western Service, which broadcasts in Kuria, Teso, Suba and Pokot. Between them, the two services take KBC's public broadcasting to smaller language communities.

Programming follows KBC's public service mandate of information, education and entertainment, given in the listeners' own languages rather than only in English or Kiswahili.

KBC is a state corporation created by an Act of Parliament (Cap 221), with its head office on Harry Thuku Road in Nairobi. Beyond the Eastern and Western Services, its radio family takes in Radio Taifa and the English Service at national level, plus regional stations from Pwani FM at the Coast to Kitwek FM in Eldoret, Minto FM in Kisii, Ngemi FM in Embu and the Somali-language Iftiin FM.

KBC's own station list names the Eastern Service languages but gives no FM frequency for it, and we have not been able to confirm one elsewhere. The simplest way to listen is to stream KBC Eastern Service on this page.