The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) has signed a news media cooperation agreement with China’s Hubei Media Group in an effort to strengthen content exchange, cultural collaboration and media technology partnerships between the two institutions.
KBC Managing Director Agnes Kalekye signed the agreement on behalf of the state broadcaster during the opening ceremony of the China-Hubei Media Week in Africa held in Nairobi on Friday, June 26.
The agreement seeks to create opportunities for the two media organisations to share content, explore joint creative projects and enhance collaboration between Kenyan and Chinese media practitioners.
Speaking after the signing, Kalekye said the partnership will allow KBC to share its rich cultural archive while creating new platforms for collaboration between creators from the two countries.
“KBC will be a partner, not a spectator. We will move beyond exchange into co-creation. Beyond cooperation into integration,” she said.
“We will digitise our archives, treasures dating back to 1928, not to lock them away, but to share them. We will build platforms where Kenyan and Chinese creators meet, learn and grow together.”
She added that the new partnership builds on the longstanding relationship between Kenya and China, dating back to the 1960s, by providing new avenues for citizens of both countries to connect through media and culture.
“We have been talking about China-Africa partnerships for decades. Infrastructure. Trade. Education. All vital. But the partnership we gather to celebrate today is different. It is about connection, not just between countries, but between people. Between hearts. Between the grandmothers and mothers who raised us and the children who will inherit the world we are building,” said Kalekye.
During the opening ceremony, Luo Yabo, Director of the TV Series Management Department at the Hubei Provincial Radio and Television Bureau, said the China-Hubei Media Week provides an important platform for strengthening people-to-people connections between Africa and China.
The event follows the China-Hunan Film Week held from June 9 to 11, further reflecting efforts to expand cultural and creative industry partnerships between Kenya and China.
The week-long programme will feature a curated exhibition of film and audiovisual work from China. Participants can also expect conferences on cultural industries and trends shaping the sector, including AI.
The opening ceremony also included the signing of a film and television co-production cooperation agreement between the Kenya Film Commission, signed by the CEO Timothy Owase and the Hubei Yangtze River Film Group.
