Mercy Walk love justice, show mercy, walk humbly…

EMFAD operates three “micro” radio stations in northeast Kenya.  The stations broadcast in local mother tongue languages and so can reach the illiterate, nomadic people groups in their respective areas. The primary objective of the stations is to minister to the areas in ways that will improve the lives of the listeners. Since the primary religion in these areas is Muslim, great care is taken to ensure that local sensibilities are respected.  The initial programming is an agricultural program called “Farming God’s Way.”

The equipment required for the station is minimal: a power supply, a transmitter, an antenna, media player (CD player or tape player) a mixer to merge voice and music inputs, and computer to edit audio material.  The adjacent picture shows how compact the equipment is.   You can listen to a sample program by clicking this link. Pictures in the gallery below are from a Maasai radio station similar to the three EMFAD operates.

The three stations are located in:

Mandera, Kenya

Mandera is located near the borders with Ethiopia and Somalia. It has a population of about 30,000. It is located in an area prone to drought. From late 2005, there has been a severe famine. As with the other areas of the North Eastern Province, Mandera is inhabited almost exclusively by ethnic Somalis. The majority of Somalis in Mandera are from the Murule, Degodia and Garre clans, with a minority representing the Marehan, Sheekhaal, Sharmooge and Leysan clans.

The Mandera station opened in June 2009. Mandera has two hours of programming and four hours of music making it a six  hour-a-day station. Mandara is provided a free  house, and a gentleman who likes radio operates the station as unpaid volunteer.  He  puts  the  station on at  six  in the  evening and turns it  off  six  hours  later. He  does  another  job for his  sustanence.  The electricity is about $30 per month. The volunteer worker gets about $20 per month for the normal office costs including cleaning, use of phone, etc.

Marsabit, Kenya:

The town of Marsabit is an outpost of urban civilization in the vast desert of northern Kenya. The town is situated on an isolated extinct volcano, Mount Marsabit, which rises almost a kilometer above the sea of desert. The surrounding hills are heavily forested, in contrast to the desert beyond, with their own “insular” eco-system. The town is inhabited by the Nilotic Samburu and Turkana, as well as the Cushitic-speaking Gabbra, Burji, Borana and Rendille. It is also home to some Somali traders and migrants.

The Marsabit station opened in June 2009. Marsabit broadcasts twelve hours of programming each day, three of them “live” with announcements and music. Beginning November 1st 2009, Marsabit became a 24 hour station.  From the EMFAD base in Ngong, we’ve  been loading  programs onto the hard drive of an old pentium two.  We will carry the computer to the Marsabit office.

The station moved to a less expensive location in November 2009 with rent about $70 per month. A volunteer technician operates the station for a small monthly sum.

Wajir, Kenya

A recent traveler to Wajir wrote “Wajir was quite inhospitable in terms of environment, it’s totally desert and flat as far as the eye can see! Wajir is very close to the Somali border so the population is mainly Somali refugees and is 99% Muslim and 1% Christian. The language spoken is Somali.”

The Wajir station opened in July 2009.  The station broadcasts two hours of solid  programming each day and the remaining 6 hours per day is music. Beginning November 1st Wajir began to broadcast 24 hours per day, three hours of programs  and  21 hours  music.  We’ve been lucky  here, we managed to “cannibalize” parts from old computers  and  come  up with a working Pentium three.

The monthly costs at Wajir are about $150 per month for rent, electricity and technician.