Kenya
KENYA is located on the east coast of the African continent. It is bordered by Ethiopia and Uganda.
Profile
| Country Number (18) | 1966 | FIRST WAVE |
| Region | Africa | Commonwealth |
| Television commenced | 1962 | |
| Colour System | 1978 | PAL |
| Population | 1966 | 8.9 million |
| TV Sets | 1966 | 11,500 |
| Language/s | English |
Television Stations / Channels
Kenya began its television service in 1962.
There is just one television station: Voice of Kenya Television (VOK) (as it was known in 1967, before being renamed Kenya Broadcasting Corporation in 1969), 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 principal language of Kenya is English, plus many tribal dialects, such as Swahili.
DOCTOR WHO IN KENYA
Kenya was the 18th country to screen Doctor Who, and the fifth in Africa (see Selling Doctor Who).
BBC Records
The Stanmark Productions Ltd advertisement from 1966, identifies Kenya as one of the twelve countries screening Doctor Who in that year.
The Seventies records a sale of "(7)" stories by 28 February 1977. The Handbook however identifies eight, being: A, C, D, E, H, J, K and L.
In DWM, Kenya is identified in 11 story Archives: B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K and L, as well as M, but this is an error.
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 the standard package of GROUPs A, B and C of the William Hartnell stories.
The programme was supplied as 16mm black and white film prints with English soundtracks.
Origin of the Prints?
Kenya was serviced by the programme distributor Television International Enterprises Limited / TIE (programmes) Ltd (see WRTH). The previous TIE Ltd client in Africa may have been Nigeria, so it's possible that Kenya's prints came from there. (Uganda (not a TIE client) aired the same set of serials a few months earlier, so may also have supplied Kenya with prints.)
Transmission
WILLIAM HARTNELL
The debut of the series appears to have been delayed by three weeks; the first episode is billed in the 16 June, 23 June, and 30 June 1966 newspapers. (A similar delay prevented Zambia from screening the series on its intended first date as it was awaiting receipt of the film prints coming from Rhodesia, who in turn seems to have been waiting the prints to come from somewhere else...)
Finally starting on 30 June 1966, the series screened weekly, at 6.00pm.
The series took a break for one week on 25 May 1967, midway through The Dalek Invasion of Earth, to allow for delayed coverage of the 14 May 1966 FA Cup Final between Everton and Sheffield.
The final episode (part two of The Rescue) is listed for both 6 July and 13 July 1967; either the screening of the final episode was delayed by a week, or the newspaper erroneously reprinted the previous week's billing for Doctor Who instead of its replacement programme, The Adventures of Robin Hood.
There is no clear record that Kenya screened Doctor Who again, even after the switch to colour in 1978.
Fate of the Prints?
The next African country to air Doctor Who was Ghana, with an assumed start date in July 1966. It is possible that Kenya sent its prints of the Hartnell stories there, but since Kenya was serviced by Television International Enterprises Limited / TIE (Programmes) Ltd (see WRTH), the next African client of TIE Ltd's was Mauritius.
TV listings
 |
← AIRDATES ...... (CLICK ICON TO GO TO TABLE SHOWING EPISODE BREAKDOWN AND AIRDATES - N/S = story title is Not Stated) |
TV listings have been obtained from the Nairobi newspapers Daily Nation and East African Standard.
The 30 June 1966 edition of East African Standard previews the new series: "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."
The Daily Nation simply says it's: "A space science fiction series".
While both papers list the series as starting on 16 June 1966, the fact that the listings for "Episode 2" on 7 July and The Forest of Fear on 14 July indicates that the series ended up starting three weeks later than was originally scheduled.
All listings give the series name as "DR WHO" (in capitals). All but four episode titles were listed in the papers. Several of the given titles were wrong: part two of The Aztecs was given as "Warriors of the Death"; part three of The Reign of Terror was "A Changed Identity", and part five was "A Bargaining of Necessity"; The Dalek Invasion of Earth part four was "The End Tomorrow", and five was "The Walking Ally".
The billings for Planet of Giants and The Dalek Invasion of Earth also got scrambled in April 1967, with the listings indicating that the first episode of the latter aired between parts one and two of the former.
Curiously, part one of the Dalek serial was given as "World's End No Break", which is presumably from someone down the line misreading a note that there was no commercial break during this episode and providing said note to the newspaper!
Kenya in Doctor Who
- The 12 million year old skull was found in Kenya (Image of the Fendahl).
