Profiles

Ann Mikia – Changing Kenyan Attitudes about HIV/AIDS – One Radio Show at a Time

KBC producer Ann Mikia editing her story in the Internews studio in Nairobi. Photo: Internews Kenya

After she broadcast her first program about teachers affected by HIV/AIDS, Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation producer Ann Mikia, said, “I was really glad to have done a radio program with HIV positive teachers, because through reaching them I felt the show reached a greater part of society - as all of us pass through the hands of teachers.”

Several teachers phoned in to Mikia’s hour-long show. Elsa Ouko, Executive Director of the Kenya Association of Positive Teachers (KENEPOTE), was a live studio guest, along with other teachers living with HIV/AIDS, and was able to provide the teachers who called in with on-air counseling and contacts for additional assistance.

Since she started producing her weekly radio program, “A Stitch in Time” in 2004, Mikia has covered a number of HIV/AIDS issues in-depth that had never been covered before or covered only superficially on Kenyan radio.  

Mikia has a degree in Communication and Sociology from the University of Nairobi and a diploma in radio production from the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication. She became interested in reporting on HIV/AIDS when she was in college and became aware of how much stigma there was surrounding the issue and the people who were infected. Mikia began producing a 15-minute radio program on HIV/AIDS.

“I remember once when a studio operator started recording and then took off in the middle of the interview on realizing that the person I was interviewing was HIV positive. Most of my colleagues keep on asking me whether I was HIV positive because of my interest in producing this program.”

Before she hooked up with Internews, Mikia had started to feel that she had nothing new to report on HIV/AIDS. Then she met Mia Malan, Senior Resident Advisor for the Local Voices project of Internews Network in Nairobi, Kenya, who helped Mikia explore new angles for reporting on HIV/AIDS.“Through the training I received from Mia and other AIDS experts, I was able to view the whole issue differently and even lobby for more airtime making my program one hour long and interactive. Listeners are now able to write text messages or even call and inquire about anything on the topic being discussed each day.”

Mikia and her co-producer Sammy Muraya produce the entire weekly show from the Internews Kenya offices. Internews provides them with a production studio, script-writing assistance and resources to find guests for their live broadcast.

In 2004, Mikia and Muraya won a prestigious award for the best HIV/AIDS radio program in Africa from the Union of African Radio and Television Organizations (URTNA).

The award was for their first hour-long program where they confronted Kenya’s National AIDS Control Council about the spread of HIV among matatu (taxi) drivers, who often give young schoolgirls free rides in exchange for sex. This is an issue that is rarely discussed or acknowledged publicly. The program resulted in the launch of a government HIV/AIDS program among public taxi drivers in 2005.

One of Mikia and Muraya’s most successful programs covered a law student who posted a list on a college notice board with 118 names of people she claimed to have infected with HIV. In the media frenzy, “A Stitch in Time” stood out. “We included a counselor, a person living with AIDS and a psychologist in our program to make sure that we could address the reason why someone would do something like this and also look at solutions,” said Ann Mikia. "We also wanted to ensure that we didn’t leave the audience with the perception that all people living with HIV/AIDS are vindictive and revengeful."