The Jamia Mosque committee Nairobi has launched Horizon Television today, which will be the first Islamic Television and one of its kind in Kenya.

Horizon TV, which is being touted as the biggest Muslim media project in the East Africa region, will provide a platform for shaping Muslim opinions.

Viewers were earlier on able to catch today’s prayers live on the sharia-compliant TV station.

According to the station’s general manager, Ali Mwachuo, Horizon TV will also be used to counter Islamic extremism.

“Media plays a key role in educating the public and by educating our youth about propaganda spread by extremists, we will be fighting them indirectly since will be reaching a wider audience through our platform,” said Ali Mwachuo.

Horizon TV is stationed in the Jamia mosque complex and will broadcast in English, Kiswahili, and Arabic.

Horizon TV the latest in digital TV migration

Kenya’s migration from analogue broadcasting to digital TV in 2015 has given room for more independent TV channels to take shape.

Digital signals take less bandwidth and this has seen the rise of more channels in Kenya. We now have over 100 TV channels.

Despite the hurdles that marked the migration including tussles between the regulator (Communication Authority of Kenya) and the country’s top media houses, Kenya managed to migrate to digital TV broadcasting on march 2015, ahead of the 17th June,2015 global deadline for digital migration. The deadline was set by ITU Member States at the Regional Radio communication Conference held in 2006, comonly refered to as the GE06 Regional Agreement.

However, a number of households still remain unconnected due to the cost associated with acquiring set-top boxes.