Radio remains one of the most powerful and accessible platforms for informing, educating, and mobilizing communities, playing a critical role in addressing global challenges like climate change.
The State Department of Broadcasting and Telecommunications Principal Secretary Edward Kisiangani has said the government wants radio to play a major role and become a partner in environmental advocacy by educating listeners and offering practical sustainable practices in addressing climate change.
Speaking during this year’s World Radio Day celebrations convened by the Media Council of Kenya on February, 13th,2025 at Aga Khan University Nairobi, the PS said the government appreciates radio’s enduring capacity to connect communities and promote environmental sustainability.
“Radio plays a significant role as a medium of informing masses on climate change issues,” said Prof Kisangani adding that it accessibly ensures that information reaches even the most remote areas, making it a vital tool for national development.
The PS noted that this year’s World Radio Day theme, ‘Radio and Climate Change’ is anchored on the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) sixth Pillar of Environment and Climate Change.
He said that the discourses radio stations command when they look at climate change issues must be discourses that promote transformational change.
The PS urged journalists and radio presenters to go beyond reporting on disasters and focus on advocating for long-term solutions in addressing climate change issues.
“We must use radio as a platform to educate people about the dangers of pollution, deforestation, and poor waste disposal,” he said, adding that climate change is no longer an abstract concept; it is a lived reality.
Media Council of Kenya CEO David Omwoyo urged radio stations to uphold professionalism and embrace solution-driven reporting, particularly on climate change coverage.
“We must ensure that information transmitted across the airwaves is accurate and informative,” he said, adding that it is an ethical challenge to retain the sanctity of radio as a space for true and verified information.
He encouraged media practitioners to highlight climate change issues through impactful storytelling and focus on humanizing climate change through lived experiences, adaptation strategies, and policy interventions.
Omwoyo appreciated the legacy left by renowned journalists, the late Leonard Mambo Mbotela and urged media practitioners to emulate his example while carrying out their professional duties.
Deputy Director of Multimedia Services at the Communication Authority of Kenya, Alfred Ambani, said the Authority recognizes the primary role that radio plays as a tool for communication as a source of news, education, and entertainment.
“Radio is a key source of information and media enables this information including climate change issues, to be disseminated through this medium,” he said.
Ambani said that Kenya has over 300 radio stations, which broadcast in both foreign and international languages and a variety of local vernacular languages in the country.
He observed that the reason why radio is very popular is that most people want to listen to information, news, and entertainment in their vernacular language.
Dean of the Aga Khan Graduate School of Media and Communication Prof. Nancy Booker, on her part, urged journalists and radio presenters to actively engage environmental experts and communities in finding viable solutions to climate change issues that the country is facing.
World Radio Day is an international day set aside by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and celebrated on February 13 every year.
This year’s event was organised by the Media Council of Kenya in collaboration with the Kenya National Commission for UNESCO and Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communication under the theme ‘Radio and Climate Change’.
