"Mr. Paul Mackenzie teachings were not on air on Times TV. The stations aired content of Pastor Odero who is the proprietor of World Evangelism TV" said Ezra Chiloba, Director General, Communications Authority. 

While appearing before the Senate Adhoc Committee investigating the proliferation of religious organisations and the circumstances leading to deaths of more than 200 people in Shakahola, Kilifi County, the Communications Authority's Director General, Mr. Ezra Chiloba said that the Authority does not have the mandate when it comes to enforcement of the violations by broadcasters. 

"Why have you not pulled down the content broadcasted by religious organisations that seem to misguide Kenyans?" asked the Chairperson of the Committee, Sen. Danson Mungatana. 

Communications Authority Director General, Mr. Ezra Chiloba told the committee that his authority is only responsible for facilitating the development of the information and communications sectors including broadcasting, cybersecurity, multimedia, telecommunications, electronic commerce, postal and courier services. However, Communications Authority does not regulate print media.

There is no licensing category for religious broadcasting stations. Therefore, broadcast stations carrying out religious programming as main genre are licensed either as commercial or community broadcasters. The licenses issued by the authority under each category have uniform terms and conditions to be complied with, irrespective of whether the programming is religious or otherwise. 

The Communications Authority Director General told the Adhoc senate committee that we have 109 broadcasters carrying programming genre which is exclusively categorized as religious. 

"CA monitors performance of broadcasters against standards outlined in the Programming Code. This is mainly done through sampling, inspections and complaint-based monitoring. The sampling framework caters for the different genres of programming." Said Ezra Chiloba. 

Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka asked the Communications Authority, why the legal framework put in place ten years ago is not able stop toxic preaching?

The Director General explained to the committee that monitoring is limited by the geographical reach and capacity of the authority to log in. Currently, the authority logs to a total of 140 free to air channels and 124 FM radios located in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Nyeri. 

The authority plans to expand the geographical reach of the broadcast logging to cover an additional 22 towns by the end of this year and additional 30 towns in the next year. 

Good News Media Ltd which runs Times TV was licensed by Communications Authority on 14th September, 2015 to provide free to air television broadcasting services. 

According to the Authority, Mr. Paul Nthenge McKenzie and Shadrack Musau Mutiso are the directors of Good News Media Kenya Limited and each owns 50% shareholding of 600 total shares issued. 

Pastor Ezekiel Odero of Newlife Communications Limited indicated to Communications Authority that he had plans to take ownership of Times TV in 2020 after making partial payments.

However, the transaction did not materialise, instead Newlife Communications Limited was issued its own license on 18th June, 2021 to broadcast as World Evangelism TV. Even so, Newlife Communications limited continued to air content on TImes TV.

Times TV and World Evangelism TV were issued with notices of violation for airing exorcism during watershed, when the children are likely to be watching. 

On 12th June, 2023, World Evangelism TV, submitted to the Communications Authority steps taken prevent recurrence of the violation and evidence of compliance with the licence conditions. 

Communications Authority reviewed the matter and concluded the World Evangelism TV had demonstrated compliance through rectification. 

"Communications Authority has provided the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (Malindi and Kilifi offices) with relevant information and documents related to the licensing and operation of the Times TV and World Evangelism TV to aid in Investigations.