John Karanja never quite saw it coming, although a tiny, unfamiliar current kept rippling through his heart.
The veteran filmmaker, behind numerous popular TV productions such as Waridi and Maua, was enjoying the glitzy gala night during the 2026 Kalasha Film and TV Awards at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, where President William Ruto was the chief guest.
The 14th edition of Kalasha was the first to be attended by a Kenyan head of state.
And then the announcement hit Karanja: “The winner of the 2026 Kalasha Lifetime Achievement Award is…”
“It was a huge surprise. You never know how what you do touches people’s lives until, finally, someone somewhere recognises it without even your input, without you even knowing it’s happening,” he said.
It was a fitting tribute to Karanja’s 30 years in the industry, during which he has recorded more than 5,000 hours of audiovisual content.
Karanja has never done anything else since graduating from the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication. His daughter has trained in film, and one of his sons is pursuing the same pathway in Grade 10 in senior school under the new curriculum.
President William Ruto spoke for Karanja and thousands of other creatives when he told the Kalasha gala night that, “The creative economy sits at the very heart of our Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda, not merely because it entertains, but also because it empowers our people, especially young people, by unlocking talent, creating opportunity and driving inclusive growth.”
Kenya’s multimillion-shilling creative sector, which contributes more than five per cent to GDP, has for years remained unstructured and poorly supported by the government, preventing it from attaining its full potential.
The Kenya Kwanza administration made the sector a priority under BETA, with President Ruto establishing the State Department for Youth and Creative Economy to drive strategic reforms.
Principal Secretary Fikirini Jacobs told the Star the industry had previously been controlled by cartels and many creatives did not receive the returns they deserved from their work. An estimated Sh92 billion was lost to the cartels, he said.
Government support initiatives over the past four years have focused on legal reforms, increased financial support, the revamping of sector institutions, capacity-building and public awareness.
The Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo), under the department, licenses collective management organisations (CMOs), which collect royalties on their behalf of members and distribute the money. Seventy per cent of the royalties are shared out, while the CMOs retain 30 per cent for administration.
CS Salim Mvurya has gazetted tariffs that guide the collection of royalties from users of creative works, such as matatus that play copyrighted music.
Fikirini’s department facilitated the signing of service-level agreements between CMOs and the e-Citizen platform. Under the agreement, CMOs collect money from users through e-Citizen, enabling the government to monitor and ascertain the collections.
“I don’t have the current figures, but what was collected in just two weeks was already much more than what the CMOs were [previously] able to collect in a year,” he said.
“In fact, when I briefed the President, he was very surprised. And I thank him because, in this particular reform, the President and the Deputy President led us in ensuring we put very strategic reforms in place for the CMOs.”
Last month, the Performing Artists and Visual Rights Society of Kenya (PAVRSK), a CMO, distributed Sh43.6 million in royalties to 5,911 creatives, collected during the 2025–26 financial year. This was Sh19.6 million more than in the previous year.
“The increase points to the growing importance of intellectual property payments, although the wider challenge remains ensuring that artists receive fair and transparent compensation for the use of their work,” said Alice Wangari, a licensing officer at PAVRSK.
“Streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube have also widened the routes through which Kenyan artists can reach audiences and earn income.”
Wangari expressed her excitement that “Kenya’s entertainment and creative industry is evolving from a largely informal sector into a commercial powerhouse, creating new revenue streams, jobs and opportunities for businesses beyond the stage”.
PS Fikirini said that, for the first time in the country’s history, members of CMOs would receive more in the next distribution of royalties.
“We have a published set of tariffs, so the CMOs cannot complain they don’t have the guidelines for collections,” he said.
Unlike in the past, politicians and political parties that use copyrighted songs during campaigns pay the CMOs according to the gazetted tariffs.
The government, through the Kenya Film Commission (KFC), has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Invention Studios, an independent Hollywood-based film and television production company, to support local filmmakers.
“I think there was a little hitch on some resources, but that is something the Sports Fund is just about to clear so that we make progress,” the PS said.
The President has also directed Fikirini’s department to identify and nurture film talent under the Who’s Next programme.
“I have actually signed today a request to the Sports Fund seeking funding to run pilots and, ultimately, go fully into implementing this programme,” he said.
Who’s Next will support film talent from the ward level in all counties.
“We have approached the county government of Nairobi to allow us to develop the Aga Khan Walk as a film district,” Fikirini said.
“When you move around town, you can see how many young people are trying to earn from creativity, shooting content and taking pictures. And I appreciate the county government of Nairobi for allowing the young people to do this. I appeal to other county governments to allow young people to use public spaces to create content.”
Last year, Multimedia University of Kenya signed partnerships with the Kenya Film Commission and the Africa Digital Media Institute, granting MMU students hands-on access to advanced production studios, filmmaking equipment and technical resources for their training.
During International Youth Day celebrations at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kakamega on August 12 last year, Ruto launched a modern cine-mobile truck with a massive 63-square-metre LED screen, an independent power generator and a high-capacity sound system for outdoor audiences of up to 800 people.
The truck, part of the Sinema Mashinani Initiative, is designed to travel to remote rural communities, overcoming the limitations of traditional indoor cinemas.
It has modern equipment to rate and classify content on the go.
“We want to reduce the distance that many young people, especially those from rural areas, have to travel all the way to Nairobi to seek classification of their content,” the PS said.
The KFC has set up film hubs in Nyeri and, more recently, in Uriri constituency, Migori county, to support young filmmakers. Creators can hire equipment and carry out post-production work in the studios.
Under a partnership with the Housing department, all affordable housing projects have set aside spaces for the creative economy.
The Kenya Film School, which was established in 2016, is being moved from Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi to more spacious premises in Konza City to expand its training programmes.
“We have proposed under the Creative Economy Bill to expand the mandate of the school from film training alone to open up the creative space. If the Bill goes through, we are going to change the name from the Kenya Film School to the School of Film and Creative Arts. We want to train in all areas of the creative arts, starting from theatre performance to music and pageantry,” director Fred Sije said.
Noah Otiende, director of the renamed Department of Film, Animation and Gaming, said the government was looking beyond production to promoting a culture of watching films in theatres among Kenyans.
“We want to develop a film culture like in other countries, where people go to theatres for screenings of locally made productions,” he said.
Other subsectors of the creative economy are being supported to form CMOs so they can benefit from government reforms.
Last week, Kecobo and the World Intellectual Property Organisation brought together authors and publishers for a technical workshop in Nairobi.
Kecobo acting executive director George Nyakweba told the Star there could be no creative economy without enforcement of intellectual property and related rights.
“We have drafted the Copyright and Related Rights Bill, 2026, which we have submitted to Parliament through the ministry. The Bill is very important because we have overhauled the current law to provide a robust legal framework that addresses issues in the creative industry,” he said.
Kecobo, the Communications Authority of Kenya, the Media Council of Kenya, the Ministry of ICT and the Ministry of Sports are currently working on a policy to address digital piracy, which costs creatives Sh92 billion annually.
