Kenya
KENYA is a country located on the south east coast of the African continent. It is a member of the British Commonwealth.
Contents
Population
When Doctor Who screened in Kenya in 1966, the population was 8.9 million, and licensed TV sets numbered only 11,500 (per WRTH, 1966).
TV & system
Kenya began its television service in 1962.
There is just one television station: Voice of Kenya Television, a government-owned commercial broadcaster based in Nairobi.
Colour transmissions began in 1978 using the PAL colour broadcast system, although Doctor Who did not screen in colour in that country.
Language/s
The main language of Kenya is English, plus many tribal dialects.
DOCTOR WHO IN KENYA
Kenya was the 18th country to screen Doctor Who (see Selling Doctor Who).
Kenya was serviced by the programme distributor Television International Enterprises Limited (see WRTH). The previous TIE Ltd client in Africa was Nigeria, so it's possible that Kenya's prints came from there.
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Kenya as one twelve countries screening Doctor Who in that year.
The Seventies records a sale of 7 stories by 28 February 1977; this actually is a mis-print - it should be 8. The Handbook identifies these eight as being: A, etc
This list misses: Template:Xx, XX, which also screened.
In DWM, Kenya is identified in 11 story Archives: B,
Stories bought and broadcast
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Eleven stories, 53 episodes:
| A | An Unearthly Child | 4 |
| B | The Daleks | 7 |
| C | Inside the Spaceship | 2 |
| D | Marco Polo | 7 |
| E | The Keys of Marinus | 6 |
| F | The Aztecs | 4 |
| G | The Sensorites | 6 |
| H | The Reign of Terror | 6 |
| J | Planet of Giants | 3 |
| K | The Dalek Invasion of Earth | 6 |
| L | The Rescue | 2 |
Kenya therefore bought GROUP A, B, C of the William Hartnell stories.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
The series started on in June 1966, at 6.00pm, and screened weekly. (The listings indicate that the episode one aired on 15 June, 23 June and 30 June!)
With a break on 25 May (due to FA Cup Final) and 6 July 1967, the series otherwise screened without a break until 13 July 1967.
There is no record that Kenya screened Doctor Who again, even after the switch to colour in 1978.
TV listings
TV listings have been obtained from the newspapers Daily Nation and East African Standard, both from Nairobi.
While both papers list the series as starting on 16 June 1966, the fact that The Forest of Fear aired on 14 July suggests that the series ended up starting one or two weeks later later than was scheduled, either on 23 June or 30 June.
All listings give the series name as DR WHO (in capitals).
The 30 June 1966 edition of East African Standard says: "Dr Who - A space science fiction series featuring William Hartnell as Dr Who, an intrepid voyager whose adventures lead him into the past, present and the future."
Fate of the Prints
The next African country to air Doctor Who was Ghana, in July 1966. It is possible that Kenya sent its prints of the Hartnell stories to Ghana. But since Kenya was serviced by Television International Enterprises Limited (see WRTH), the next African client of TIE's was Mauritius.
Kenya in Doctor Who
There are no known instances where Kenya is mentioned in the series.
References
