The celebrations were opened by Ms Merita Ombuor, Chief Communications Officer, Marketing and Change Management, County Government of Kisumu, who stated that “Kisumu County Government is delighted to be invited and be part of the World Radio Celebrations in Kenya and it is an honour for UNESCO to hold this year’s celebrations in Kisumu.  She further stated that County Government looks forward to liaise and possibly partner with UNESCO on initiatives around ICTs, gender and media and help develop training programs aimed at building capacity of journalists in radio on how to produce development programs in the various sectors of the county.”

At the occasion of the community radio practitioners were e trained on the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Radio Programming and Diffusion aimed at equipping them with prerequisite skills on how to use ICTs for radio programming.  Training on the Use of Internet to Report on Women empowerment was also carried out to twenty six participants represented by Sauti FM, Mugambo Jwetu FM, Mwanedu FM and Radio Mang’elete FM.
Mr Dan Anduvate from FIT Resources Ltd, said that “This year’s celebrations provided a great opportunity for the community radio stations practitioners, especially women - to share their experiences and learn from one another, for their efforts to be appreciated and to get encouraged to forge on in spite of numerous challenges and bottlenecks that they face.”

This activity is part of UNESCO’s on-going SIDA project on “Empowering local radios with ICTs” in 4 radio stations located in Kenya aimed at building capacities of radio practitioners in the region.

World Radio Day 2014 was celebrated around the world to promote gender equality by sensitizing radio station owners, executives, journalists, and governments to develop gender-related policies and strategies for radio; eliminate stereotypes and promote multidimensional portrayal in radio; build radio skills for youth radio production; and, promote Safety of women radio journalists.