Profiles

Tole Nyatta — Reaching Out to the Youth of Kenya

Internews

Tole Nyatta is a 29-year-old journalist and journalism trainer at Kenya's Pamoja FM, a radio station serving one of Africa’s largest slums, Kibera, with an audience of 1.2 million.

How did you come to work in radio journalism?

 In high school I was involved in a television youth program which ran for a whole year — this is when I fell in love with journalism. But I didn’t realize my dream until 2004 when I was contracted to go repair some machines at a coastal FM station. After fixing the studio mixer, I tested it on air and to my surprise the station got a number of text messages and calls about me. This prompted the owner to hire me. I worked there until the end of 2006 when I moved to Nairobi to work as freelancer. Then last year, I started working with Pamoja FM, the Kibera community radio station, on a volunteer basis.

What do you think are the most important issues for youth in your country? And how do those issues relate to media and journalism?

The most important issues for the youth in my country are poverty and unemployment. Unemployment is a thorny issue and media has a responsibility to create, search for and advertise vacancies for the youth and empower and initiate programs to eradicate poverty.

In what ways does your radio station work with youth or youth issues?

We have partnered with a microfinance organization where youth groups have been allocated stalls and are being offered loans for businesses to combat poverty and unemployment. We also have programs touching on art, reproductive health, HIV, and sports to engage the youth and keep them busy.

How has the recent conflict in Kenya affected your work, in particular with youth?

Most of the people involved in the protests and destructions were the youth and they felt that we as a station were not supporting them because we were preaching peace and dissuading them from violence. But we continued with the campaign and now it is bearing some fruits — the only hiccup being funding for the programs.

What is the biggest challenge in your work?

The biggest challenge in my work is financial – we need funds to pay for rent, facilities and trained personnel to work together at the station. Everything else we take in stride.

What motivates you in your work?

The feeling that comes when the work you have done is aired and you get very positive feedback and you hear how it has helped. This makes me want to do more.

What are your future plans for the radio station? Specifically, what are your plans for youth radio?

The future plans for the station are to have more empowering projects for the youth, to build capacity for the youth from Kibera so that they can compete effectively with the rest of the country.

Tole Nyatta was honored at the Internews' 2008 Media Leadership Awards

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