Singer and Mathare Parliamentary seat aspirant Bahati Kioko has vowed to push through legislation that will compel local media stations including radio and TV stations to play more local music and give added exposure to local and upcoming artists. He says advocating for creatives’ rights in parliament will be one of his priorities as he relaunches his bid for the parliamentary seat after finishing third in the 2022 General Election race behind the incumbent Anthony Oluoch of ODM. Bahati says local media stations currently play more than 70% foreign content and only a few give credence to local content.
Playing local content on local media stations has been a long-term issue despite recent legislation attempting to expand the music and creative industry in the country. Today, established and new media stations still heavily rely on international music to entertain their listeners or viewers. It is something Bahati Kioko says needs to change so that local musicians have an equal or better chance at making it within the industry.
Kenya has one of the fastest-growing entertainment industries in the world with musicians and artists from all over the world frequently using it as an access point to the raw African audience. In the recent past, global superstars including Rick Ross, Chris Brown and Burna Boy have toured the country to deliver electrifying performances for music lovers. Bahati Kioko now wants to push through changes that will give local musicians similar opportunities.
“In Kenya today, our local media stations are playing more than 70% foreign music. This means that only 30% airtime is left for the many aspiring and established musicians in the country. These musicians are spread all over the country and all want to be known by Kenyans and become established within the industry. The difficulties in accessing entertainment spaces within the industry has pushed many musicians to engage in dramatic showbiz to get recognition. This is what I intend to address once elected by the people of Mathare,” said Bahati Kioko.
Why Bahati Kioko Wants More Local Content In Kenyan Media
Bahati faults artists Jaguar, who was elected to represent Starehe constituency, and Jalang’o, elected to represent Lang’ata constituency for not doing enough to push through legislation hat would have looked after local musicians and content creators.
“If we compel local media stations like Nation FM to play local content, it will automatically open up opportunities for other upcoming musicians across the region. For instance, if a radio station was playing 70% local content, it would have to look for good music content across many regions in the country to complete its entertainment pack; it wouldn’t only recycle content by top and established musicians,” Bahati adds.
Bahati says the unrelenting preference for foreign music and content has distorted the local music and film industry. He adds that this has made it almost impossible for a song released locally to become a hit and command the numbers that foreign musicians like Burna Boy or Diamond Platinumz enjoy within the local music scene.
Bahati also points to an emerging trend where multinational and global entertainment platforms like Netflix, HBO and Showmax have reduced the rate of uptake of Kenyan content on their platforms because there is low exposure of Kenyan content within the Kenyan entertainment industry.
As candidates and political parties align and realign in preparation for the 2027 General Elections, honest conversations on frameworks to protect Kenyans and expand opportunities available to them need to be had. This should also extend to the private sector and non-political environments. Kenya has one of the most vibrant private sectors, which should be utilised to complement the existing political structures in empowering the population.
Bahati Kioko made the comments while appearing on NTV‘s Fixing The Nation on 11 November 2026
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