The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has suspended the licence of vernacular station Mt Kenya TV for four weeks for airing inappropriate content last week. The station has further been fined with a penalty of Sh500,000 recoverable summarily.
The CA said that the television station had aired adult content during the watershed period in the programme “Mucii wa Ciana” that aired on the afternoon of April 19, which exposed children to harmful content.
The programme featured an animated movie titled “Free Jimmy”, which the communications regulator said breached the Programming Code and ICT laws due to its sexually explicit content, scenes of drug abuse and violence.
The channel, owned by Slopes Media House, was also fined Sh500,000 and ordered to take all its staff to the CA within seven days for training on the programming code.
The CA charged the station with violating Part IV (19) of the Kenya Information and Communications (Broadcasting) Regulations of 2009 which outlaws presenting sexual matters in an explicit and offensive manner.
The CA added that Mt Kenya TV aired content that has not been classified or rated by the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) and had not acquired the requisite intellectual property rights from the Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) for the content.
The ban comes barely a month after Homeboyz Radio was fined Sh1 million by the CA over inappropriate remarks made by its presenters who demeaned a woman thrown off a building in response to assault.
