The experience of Development Through Media (DTM) dates back to when one of its
founders embarked on an uncharted course of producing the first ever documentary,
“If Women Counted”, that specifically targeted women and governance issues. The
documentary interrogated the challenges and opportunities in women’s quest for
political leadership that existed at the time. The documentary spurred a lot of media
and public discussions, eventually contributing to the creation of what later became
known as Gender and Governance programmes.

The idea for setting up DTM also arose out of this discourse as it presented an
important opportunity as an independent media entity for plugging the gaps left by
mainstream media where issues of social development were rarely targeted for
promotion. DTM is therefore among the first non-profit and development oriented
audio-visual media organisation to set up in Kenya in 1996 as a local idea in response
to challenges that have continued to stand in the way of developing independent and
all-inclusive media and broadcasting models/institutions for advocacy work in Kenya
and East Africa.