Radio Jambo

Radio Jambo is Radio Africa Group's Swahili station for a mass, national audience, known for football talk, comedy and conversation in plain everyday Kiswahili. Nairobi listeners get it on 97.5 FM, and its sisters in the group are Kiss 100 and Classic 105.

Radio Africa started the station in 2009. Music director James Njoroge has explained that the group spotted a gap for a large national Swahili brand that sounded different from KBC and Radio Citizen. From the start it went wide, with roughly 19 transmitters.

Sport came first. Early Radio Jambo leaned on Kenyan football and the big European leagues, then gradually opened up into a general station with strong appeal among working-class and lower-income listeners. By 2016 the brand had a spin-off with its own studios, Radio Jambo Turkana, and Radio Jambo was the only Radio Africa station running live news bulletins at the time.

Its audience figures are strong. For January to July 2024, Radio Jambo ranked number one nationally with 15.5 per cent of listeners, and took 10.6 per cent of radio advertising spend, the biggest share of any station. Much of that success is put down to the pairings of Ghost Mulee with Gidi, and Mbusi with Lion.

Radio Africa itself traces back to 2000, when Patrick Quarcoo and William Pike set it up with Kiss 100. The group later added The Star newspaper and stations including East FM and Gukena FM. Tune to 97.5 FM in Nairobi, visit radiojambo.co.ke, or stream Radio Jambo live here.