ABSTRACT
This view of the influence of the media on the conditions of the artists reflects the worries experienced by Kenyan musicians concerning the changing media environment. Kenya has been the centre of the music and media industry in East Africa. The market-economy policies of Kenya have attracted investments from the international music industry in a number of projects. One such was ‘East African Records Ltd’, the now-defunct record pressing plant in the capital Nairobi. Another was a modern recording studio complex built with funds from CBS (Wallis and Malm 1984:93-5). This influx of foreign capital has contributed to the development of the music and media scene in Kenya. As we shall see, the international companies, however, have not been very successful in controlling their interests in Kenya. Another party that has been active in developing the media in Kenya on a more local level is Unesco.
