"Providing reliable news and information to the people of Kenya is critical, particularly during this time," said VOA Africa Division Chief Gwen Dillard. "This shows once again how VOA can provide a valuable service to audiences," she added.
The expanded radio coverage will offer news from a network of stringers in the region, interviews with a range of newsmakers including ruling and opposition party representatives, political analysts, economists, local residents, as well as U.S. officials, UN, EU and AU mediators and other African leaders.
The service will also begin a new series called In Focus taking an in-depth look at issues such as land distribution, the constitution, ethnic tensions, national reconciliation and the future of democracy in Kenya.
The new program will be broadcast at 0930-1000 UTC, 12:30 p.m. local time Monday-Friday, and at 1700-1730 UTC, 8:00 p.m. on weekends. Swahili broadcasts will now run for a total of two hours each weekday and one hour on Saturdays and Sundays. Visit www.VOANews.com/swahili for more information on VOA Swahili language programming.
The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts more than 1,250 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 115 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages.
For more information, please call the Office of Public Affairs at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail publicaffairs@voa.gov.
