Royal Media Services (RMS) has launched dedicated new election studios for its TV stations including Citizen TV, Inooro TV and Ramogi TV, as well as an in-house results collation and tallying centre. Polling stations across the country will open at 6am on Tuesday, August 9.
Looking to capture sky-high ratings as the country goes to the polls, RMS unveiled its latest investment on Sunday, August 7. It will be competing with the likes of NTV and KTN News to offer the best election coverage as Kenyans keep their eyes glued to their screens.
The collation and tallying centre includes over fifty workstations. Data experts have been hired to keep track of results streaming in from polling stations from across the 290 constituencies. Data from the centre will be key to RMS coverage of the elections across its three TV stations and 13 radio stations.
The studios feature modern broadcast technology including interactive screens to display and analyze election data. The shiny new studios are also designed to offer wall to wall coverage of the polls. It will also have a field studio at the Bomas of Kenya – where the winner of the Presidential election will be announced.
All of RMS’ TV properties including Citizen, Ramogi and Inooro have gotten studio upgrades ahead of the polls. They offered a peek into the new studios in a live broadcast ahead of prime time news on August 7.
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RMS owner SK Macharia had earlier on Sunday attended a prayer and thanksgiving service in Nairobi alongside Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Presidential candidate Raila Odinga. At the event, Odinga advocated for peace and national unity, avoiding any talk of politics.
Macharia is among Raila’s long-time backers. Over the campaign period, RMS is among media houses that have faced criticism from Deputy President William Ruto and his camp over alleged bias.
Ruto has maintained that the media is biased in favour of long-time opposition leader Odinga.
“When some media houses for example Citizen (TV) give ten minutes to our competitors and they give us one minute, it flies in the face of integrity, fairness and balance,” Ruto told Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chair Wafula Chebukati after being cleared to run for President at the Bomas of Kenya on June 4, 2022.
Watch the unveiling of the new studio and tallying centre below:
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