Crime Editor Muiruri's Resignation Letter

Reproduced below is Stephen Muiruri's detailed resignation letter. It speaks volumes;

Stephen Muiruri

P.O Box 872 City Square

Nairobi

February 2, 2007

Group Human Resources Manager

Nation Media Group

P.O Box 49010 GPO

Nairobi.

Dear Madam,

RE: RESIGNATION

I wish to inform you that I have decided to tender my resignation from Nation Media Group with immediate effect. This letter comes into effect from the time and date signed below.

I arrived at this decision after careful consideration of various issues and after wide consultations.

After the meeting we had with the CEO, Mr Linus Gitahi, and several other top managers in the afternoon yesterday, the Group Editotial Director, Mr Wangethi Mwangi, sent me a memo in which two serious allegations were leveled against me.

I had gone to Mr Gitahi to express some concerns about my work and issues touching on my personal safety and that of my family. To my surprise, the meeting was turned into a lynch forum and the genuine issues that I had raised were swept under the carpet and other unrelated issues cropped up. I believe that any employer, just like a responsible father, would pay serious attention to issues of the same nature that I raised and try to come up with a solution. I believe that am right when I saw Mr Gitahi has encouraged any employee to visit his office on any issue.

For my case, he called me on the very first day he reported to Nation Centre and expressed confidence in my work, assured me of his total support and told me I was always free to see him on any issue. Mr Gitahi has repeated the same message during my subsequent meetings with him or when he met other members of staff. It was, therefore, surprising that a genuine concern was sidelined and the tables were turned on me with allegations that have no legitimate foundation.

In his memo, Mr Mwangi accused me of two things. First, he asked me to respond to an unspecified issue I’m alleged to have done on December 21, 2006, which he claimed contravened my terms of employment with the Nation Media Group. Secondly, he claimed that the circumstances and “facts surrounding the purchase of a motor vehicle by yourself from the police” point to a conflict of interest.

When I went through my records last night, I found out that on December 21, 2006, I placed an advert that appeared in the Daily Nation the next day seeking employees for my tour firm. I paid for the advert and the receipts are available. How that contravened my terms of employment remains a puzzle to me.

On the second issue, the said “facts” are a complete distortion of the truth. A detailed report I voluntarily gave to and the Group Security Manager, Mr Sam Koskei, and the official Government records and newspapers that advertised the public auction that resulted in the sale of the motor vehicle, contains hard facts. Yet, somebody wants to twist the facts to suit an intended objective – to portray me as a dishonest person not suitable to hold any position at Nation Media Group.

The facts of the matter in the report have not changed and it’s my honest opinion that I did not use my position at NMG in conflict with company rules and regulations. The said vehicle was put out for sale in a public auction, advertised in the national newspapers and all the procurement procedures were legally followed. There are no regulations at NMG or any laws in Kenya which bar relatives of NMG employees from purchasing items put up on sale in a public auction.

Yesterday’s turn of events did not come as a surprise to me. I have been aware that the police commissioner, Maj Gen Hussein Ali, has been applying pressure on senior managers at NMG to have me sacked because of the coverage of crime and security stories. He is also on record calling on NMG management to take steps against me over a story I had written over the post of CID director.

Although the commissioner issues a statement, full of abusive language, and was categorical the story was total lies and my own imagination, my forthrightness and accuracy of my information I had published was vindicated two weeks later when one of the three people I had mentioned in my story as having been short-listed for the job of CID Director was appointed to the post. No one offered me any apology for the insults that were hurled at me and Daily Nation boasted about how the Sunday Nation had broken the story in an exclusive report.

I have been made aware that Maj Gen Ali has been digging information about my wealth and in particular the motor vehicle that Mr Mwangi referred to. Everything I own is not a secret and anyone wishing to access it is free to visit the relevant Government departments to quench their curiosity. Is it then a coincidence that the events of yesterday have no relation to the malicious campaign that Maj Gen Ali has been waging on me after I refused to tow his line of turning a blind eye on the insecurity gripping the country? I have discharged my duties professionally and made NMG proud by outshining our competitors in the coverage of crime and security issues. I have done so accurately and objectively.

Despite pressure from Maj Gen Ali, I refused to compromise my professional ethics and this resulted in a vicious campaign to have me out of NMG. Why should I not inform Kenyans when people are being killed every day? I have taken this bold move of resigning because I have a reputation to protect and I can’t compromise my principles by being part of a group that wants to cover up the truth for their own selfish interests.

I believed the NMG management sacrificed me at the alter of personal interests and to please Maj Gen Ali. The baseless allegations that have been leveled against me are only a ploy to cover up the real issues of the behind-the-scene maneuvers to edge me out of NMG. Evil will never defeat the good. Who are my accusers? I walk out of Nation Centre holding my head high and without a grain of dirt or being involved in any scandal. I’m proud of the achievements I have made, both at the personal and professional level. I take pride that assembled together a Crime Desk at NMG from scratch and it has remained a national and global authority in the coverage of crime and security matters.

I don’t regret my departure today from NMG since I have never been afraid to leave the company. I have always believed there is life beyond NMG and I was well prepared for it. Those who thought that my departure will ever kill my spirit and determination in life are mistaken. God is my future. My conscience is clean and those who take pride in the misery they bring upon innocent colleagues and hoped to use my downfall to deflate or divert the dark clouds currently hanging over their heads should know that their ploy is a major flop. I repeat again, who are my accusers? Between myself and them, who has soiled hands?

The only issue that I would wish to point out is that malice and witch-hunt will never take this company anywhere. But I take solace in the Bible which states that those who kill by the sword also die by the sword. And I also take solace in the words of William Shakespeare who said that the evils that men do live long after they are dead. God will one day hear the cries of the silent majority who have been suffering for long or have been forced out of this great company through witch-hunt and evils perpetuated by a small clique of managers who have been using their positions as a tool of oppression.

There only pending business I have with the NMG is the case at the High Court regarding the Koinange Street story touching on three MPs. I will have no problem being called as a NMG witness and I can be contacted on the above postal address.

I wish to humbly request you to urgently accept my resignation and process the benefits entitled to me to enable me start the process of clearing from the company as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Muiruri

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