LEADERSHIP MONTH 2006 Summary
The year 2006 saw the implementation of Africa’s first multimedia leadership campaign, dubbed ‘The Annual Kenyan Leadership Month in the Media’ (which carried the Swahili slogan ‘Uongozi bora ni Maendaleo’) as a pilot project. The campaign aimed to work as a civic education program by transferring knowledge and enhancing awareness on issues of good leadership and best practices of governance.
MFA, in collaboration with the mainstream media, implemented and created an alternative national leadership discourse platform free from censorship, encouraged debate on exciting topical issues, and sought public opinion and attitudes on various leadership categories (community, political, religious and administrative).
A wide range of programmes in the form of radio and TV panel discussions, educational soaps, phone-in radio programmes, documentaries and mini-soaps, were broadcast on radio and television. Advertisements, SMS and an interactive website also formed an integral part of the communication strategy. The underlying premise for this approach was to empower the public, civil society and the media to demand for good leadership and greater accountability and transparency from leadership.
The 2006 Leadership Month focused on the following themes:
– Leadership & Quality of Life
– Leadership & Ethnicity
– Leadership & Peace Building
– Youth & Women Leadership
MFA’s programs were watched and listened to on Radio and TV by an estimated 6.5 million people aged 15 years and above. Enhancement of awareness, due to the campaign, was shown to increase. Of all the people exposed to the campaign (an estimated 4.4 million, 78% believed that the campaign had helped them to better understand issues of leadership in Kenya and in addition to that another 56% stated that “next time they would choose their leaders more carefully”.
