The nearly 180,000 residents of Ngorongoro District are reported to be receiving radio broadcasts from the neighbouring country of Kenya.
The concern was tabled during the recent Arusha Regional Consultative Committee Meeting here whose delegates were told that most parts of the district do not access radio or television services from local stations.
Apparently, Loliondo, Engaresero, Sale, Samunge and Digo-Digo are all fully covered by the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), the country’s National Radio station through both Medium Wave (MW) and Amplitude Modulation (AM).
In some cases even through Frequency Modulation (FM) for locations that happen to be closer to the border. Other parts of Ngorongoro receive broadcasts of the private ‘Citizen Radio’ and a number of other tribal radio stations of Kenya that use vernacular.
Being a mostly Maasai precinct, a number of Ngorongoro residents have been enjoying Kenyan stations that sometimes broadcast using the language.
Chaired by the Regional Commissioner, Mr Magessa Mulongo, the Regional Consultative Committee Meeting called upon the state broadcaster, TBC (Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation) to address their reception blues in Ngorongoro before the entire vicinity starts imagining it belonged to the neighbouring country.
Ngorongoro District happens to lie directly along the Tanzania-Kenya borderline further North. The District measuring over 14,000 square kilometres is the largest of the seven precincts making up the Arusha Region.
Made up of mostly reserved areas such as the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, Loliondo Game Controlled Area and the Northern Highland Forest Reserve, not to mention part of the Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro is a scantly populated district as well.
By MARC NKWAME, Tanzania Daily News
