Does NTV Owner The Aga Khan Come From Murang’a..? Mutahi Ngunyi Quips

One of the narrative told and re-told by the three media houses is that the government awarded digital broadcast licences to foreigners. They point to the fact that Startimes is Chinese owned while GOtv is South African.
What they do not tell you is that there’s a lot of foreign ownership within their ranks. NTV for instance is majority owned by the Aga Khan – a Briton.
Here’s the shareholding breakdown at NMG.

They’ve also been economical with the truth in that GOtv is not wholly owned by the South Africans, but has local ownership too. National broadcaster KBC has a 40% stake in Multichoice Kenya which owns GOtv.
When Startimes was awarded the license, the Communication Authority required them to relinquish a large stake to a local owner progressively. Therefore, the ‘foreigner’ argument does not hold.
In related news, political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi made this witty remark on Twitter.