On 28th November 2018, the Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication and Technology presided over the graduation ceremony at Kenya Institute of Mass Communication that saw 351 students being awarded with diplomas and certificates in various programmes offered by the institution. Accompanying him was Ms. Fatuma Hirsi, the Principal Secretary, Broadcast and Telecommunications and the Ag. CEO of Kenya Film Commission, Mr. Timothy Owase.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Cabinet Secretary offered all the graduands a one-year internship opportunity at the Kenya News Agency offices all over the country so as to tap into the talent and skills that exists among the students.
“We will create a program that will absorb all these graduands so that they can work in a news environment and be sensitized on what they need to do in all the 47 counties.”
He however, urged the graduands to aspire to be self-employed and even create employment opportunities for others using the knowledge and skills they have acquired so as to support the Big Four Agenda of the government.
Throwing caution to the wind, CS Joe Mucheru advised the graduands to uphold high standards of professionalism and be proactive in authenticating their pieces of information, context and sources especially in this era of fake news to avoid spreading of propaganda that can polarize the nation.
While addressing the graduands at the ceremony, he noted that, to sustain the growing content and TV stations that creates jobs for the many Kenyans, the students have a critical role in ensuring that the content they generate is not only marketable enough to attract revenues from advertisements, but can also help the country in progressing the Big Four Agenda.
“We have been hailed as a country that has a high aptitude for film productions with most of our crew base contracted to support high-grossing films outside of the country. Let us aim at bringing Kenya back as a quality film and movie production power house. My ministry is seeking to establish a film fund to assist the youth not only in exploiting self-employment opportunities through film production but also to enable the country to embrace diversity and to tell the Kenyan story.
