The big question on everybody's mind is, what is going on at Citizen Broadcasting? Everybody knows that the broadcaster has had problems paying staff salaries for years. So why would high profile news anchors like those named, leave a reliable employer like the Standard group and head for a struggling outfit?
Former KTN news anchor and now with NTV, Julie Gichuru: Is she the next target for Citizen?
It is obvious that major changes have taken place at the broadcaster. For starters the owner of the station, the controversial Mr Macharia of Madhupaper fame is a close friend of the president. In fact Macharia flexed his muscles early in the Kibaki administration when he single-handedly shut down KissFM for almost week by deliberately interfering with their frequencies. To date no charges have been brought against him for what he did.
Word on the street is that there is some fresh capital being injected into Citizen Broadcasting (no relation to the notorious gutter press title Citizen Weekly). The whole idea is to use the broadcaster as an effective campaign tool for the forthcoming general elections.
It is no secret that the president's supporters are awash with cash from Anglo Leasing and it is obvious that no expense will be spared to see the aging, tired and ailing president safely back in state house so that they can complete their ongoing deals behind the scenes.
It is suspected that this is the cash that has played havoc at KTN. Other leading broadcasters, especially Nation's NTV should be very wary of chaps coming around and offering their leading news anchors an offer they cannot refuse.
It will be interesting to see how this issue develops in the next few weeks and months.
P.S. Have you noticed how Catherine Kasavuli has been having difficulties reading out the news lately, especially when the camera is on her? She is hesitant and sometimes gets words wrong. This is very much unlike her. Is her eye-sight failing? Catherine is not exactly young as you know. I used to admire her on TV when I was a schoolboy. Do the calculations.
Many people don't know it, but there are plenty of genuine jobs and business opportunities available online. Get details on how you too can make money on the Internet or even earn a living. It does not matter whether you live in the remotest village in Kenya or anywhere else, all you need is a computer connected to the Internet. Read Kumekucha's fascinating report; Ways To Make Money Online
Regular violent wife rape by a dutiful husband.
Dude,
ReplyDeletewhats with the bile for Kibaki?
Its obvious he is the only man running who actually wants to make a difference and has made a diff.He is not perfect and people should stop expecting miracles after Moi fucked up this country good. All his messs cant be cleared up in 5 years. Moi ruled for over 20 years so expect that it would take the same amount of time to fix this place up.
The rest of the politicians, more specifically Raila and all his buddies who are also running (in the same political party-clearly showing that they themselves don't believe that their colleagues can run the country)are obviously in it for their own very selfish interests. I fear for us should any of them actually win the elections. This place will be more fucked up than ever, for shizzle.
Give credit where its due. Kibaki has tried. Don't hate, congratulate.
And another thing,If Catherine was poached for a better salo then hooray for her. Where citizen get the money to pay her is their business. You make it sound like its a bad thing that they took up an offer that would greatly improve their lives. I say Kudos. Lucky them. I should be so lucky.
Be a little more objective in future cause I am a fan of your blog.
Oh yah, The 2nd last paragraph says nothing...its kinda pointless.
Fix it.
The best part I like on responder coming in aid of the sloth is this:
ReplyDeleteQuote and I quote
"He is not perfect and people should stop expecting"
Yes indeed Chris, whatever is happening at Citizen has got all the signs of setting up an election campaign propaganda machinery. That also comes with lucrative advertising deals and corporate feature programming. Mind you these stations can also be used to rig elections.
ReplyDeleteIt beats me how Citizen, a private company, continues to behave like a state broadcaster. Have you not seen them airing live Narc Kenya functions? If you happen to attend any of their famous road shows all over the country then you will understand what I mean.
We can only hope that the mwananchi will not be incited against each other or deceived into voting for wayward regimes using tv/radio stations.
And in case you have not noticed, KBC has recruited young new anchors for their english & swahili bulletins, and I think they are cool and full of prospects. This is what Citizen ought to do. No one will miss the likes of Kasavuli and Otieno. They certainly know which side of the bread is buttered.
About the Kibaki re-election plan, I wonder how he can even have guts to ask for my vote. I have in my possession a list of pledges he specifically asked me to keep and use on his government as a test for the next elections. I am not only disappointed by his failure to fulfill the pledges, but also the fact that he betrayed our dreams and installed a government we did not vote for in 2002. To make matters worse; he has repeatedly called us pumbavus, shenzis and even questioned our intelligence when it suited him. Now that its election time, it appears he needs as many friends as he can make. Let him carry his own cross. Sorry.
I hold no brief for Chris. With that refrain out of the way, I and we may disagree with him but I will defend his right to go ballistic with his opinions. Lynching the messenger is the cheap option while we conviniently evade the message.
ReplyDeleteKibaki has his critics and admirers and both sets of Kenyans must exercise their right to associate and speak freely. However, the price of this endevour is responsibility which is irreplaceable.
The bile from Chris may have been prompted by his propable ability to read malice when he sees one. Ignoring scandalous schemes like those at Citizen is to latently culture the virulent virus of meg corruption. Macharia is no saint and given his past business dealing, we have all the reasons to worry when he turns a private broadcasting station into the governement's (read Narc-K) mouthpiece.
As for the mass exodus, the news anchors are just being typical Kenyans ready to sell pursue hell for leather. Justifying their shift to dynamics of demand and supply if the height of economic naivity. The adage every Kenyan has a price couldn't be aptin capturing our mad rush to join the club of the haves.
Election rigging comes in numerous shades and the planning well in advance. We only burry our heads in the sand if we are complacent with the unwitty untics of aping the ostrich. We must redeem our motherland from fraudsters masquarading as investors and leaders.
Hehehe... Taabu, you make it sound like it is immoral to go to citizen simply because they have offered a better salary. I think its a non-issue whether anchors are poached or not.
ReplyDeleteOn the issue of Narc-K using Citizen, I am actually relieved. Now KBC can afford to be objective as it will not be under pressure to deliver Government friendly news. The use of private media as a propaganda machine is, in my opinion, the way politicians should do it. It is way better than using tax payers money through a state corporation to propagate party politics and propaganda.
Ati the poaching of anchors to citizen is a ploy to rig the elections?? Taabu, that's fallacy, to say the least. Kwani KTN and NTV will close up? Hehehe...
I must agree with Anonymous that this issue is bile for Kibaki masquarading as something else. Next time, just approach the issue head-on, not loading genuine issues with personal undercurrents.
Ngunyi,
ReplyDeleteI think just like Kasavuli as alleged by Chris, he is suffering from a problem of lack of objectivity. For instance he has alleged that the supporters of the president are awash with anglo leasing cash. Surely he must know when he is peddling a lie.
He claims his is a fearless blog, so why would it be difficult to name these friends and the ACTUAL ANGLO LEASING DEAL RELEASED MONEY TO THESE FRIENDS.
I do not think Chris is endearing himself with his readers when he joins the ranks of liars!
Can you imagine that now Kasavuli is going to citizen she is struggling to read the news.......give us a break!!
We all know that what is happening is not that Citizen are strenthening their team but setting up a proper machinery to campaign and help Kibaki get back to state house. If this isn't so,would you expalin why Citizen would give abnormal offers to the best news anchors around?
ReplyDeleteThe gorverment has been fighting the press, targeting those media houses that are out to speak the truth. We saw this when Kass Fm was temporarily shut down and Standard group raided and vandalised on undisclosed allegations (that the goverment is yet is to tell the public). Worse still why would they start with KTN?
The goverment is even using Postal Corporation of Kenya to spread their propaganda! I went to check my box for mails and what I found was unbelievable, a booklet titled "Ukweli wa mambo". Dont tell me they paid for that, it was not stamped!If they(goverment) has perfomed they need not to worry, we are going to decide their fate.
We should be careful with media houses that are out to preach propaganda. It happened in Rwanda and we dont want to see that happen here in Kenya. Got it dude! How can a media house tranverse the country spreading propaganda like they(citizen) did during the referendum? The president should realise that this old methods cant work for him. We shall vote in the best.
Fredyombo
Its not bile for Kibaki. We have every reason to eye developments at Citizen warily. We remember (with regret) S.K. Macharia declararing Citizen Media and all its workers Banana supporters during referendum political rallies. He even paraded his news anchors at these rallies. (Am not sure if he breached CCK licencing rules when he did this). During the referendum campaigns, all the Citizen stations had tribal commentaries that left a lot to be desired. One Waweru Mburu is very notorious for this. And if we may ask, why is Citizen media the only station with national FM signals for all its vernacular FM stations? Is this not irregular? Especially when one considers we have had tribal clashes in Kenya before. Are they the only applicants for these licences? Citizen's media broadcasting reach is far better than KBC, Nation and KTN. I consider KBC a state broadcaster and therefore does not pay any licence fees for FM signals. Why do we still find KBC radio on MW and AM bands in some remote regions while citizen is on FM. Whats going on at CCK? Is it a mere coincidence that Wachira Waruru (former MD KBC) now at the helm of Citizen Media?
ReplyDeleteSome food for thought here guys. Granted, KTN has been Kenyan's premier TV station with unrivalled news quality, sometimes even more accurate and updated than the print media. At the risk of being seen to read malice in every move, I smell a rat in a cleverly hatched plan to rob KTN of its popular faces (news casters) whose loyal viewers are calculated to defect with them.
ReplyDeleteThe result? The wind taken off KTN's sail and a diping viewership creating fertile ground for propaganda. The government spin doctors are not fools neither are they sleeping on the wheel. I see a wider scheme to weaken the media so as to leave Kenyans vulrenable to all the impending lies of 'Ukweli wa Mambo' type.
While still on the same risk isle, I dare ask dear Kenyans and readers why we seem content with tokenism for progress. We sem to cheaply fall for the low standards set by politicians in using Moi's destructive rule as a benchmark. With due respect, this is akin to a pack of fools debating who amongst them is the brightest (I beg you not to take offence fellow countrymen).
We don't need 60 months to pick ourselves up from the ruins and become a rising star given the natural and human resources we have at our disposal. All that we need is to have them distributed and utilized optimally and equitably. No rocket science here. We must measure up to a fast-paced approach to development and stop enaging in reverse logic by praising tokenism lest we continnue going around in circles of infinite circumferences.
Seeing what happened in Rwanda I do hope Kenyans will not be taken by the propaganda pushed in any media. That's my honest prayer.
ReplyDeleteMy question to this mass exodus is what happens after elections? We know fully well that election year is awash with money but what after that?
I agree with Taabu that we should stop using Moi's terrible 24yr rule as a benchmark for our wayforward, because that way the likes of Kibaki can get away with murder while we are still there saying, "Oh but Moi did much worse." Let's be sensible enough to set a higher benchmark.
Having said that, I congratulate Kibs for the stuff he has set in place/done/achieved etc. And since there is no one else worth electing in we'll give him another five years. But he and his government has to learn to put in long term plans so that when it comes to handing over power the next regime won't have a difficult time and therefore Kenyans can continue to live in a conducive living and working environment.
Taabu,
ReplyDelete"I smell a rat in a cleverly hatched plan to rob KTN of its popular faces (news casters) whose loyal viewers are calculated to defect with them.
The result? The wind taken off KTN's sail and a diping viewership creating fertile ground for propaganda."
Firstly, I must concede that Citizen media is highly likely to be used as propaganda machinery. However, i view the poaching of anchors as more of a business decision than a political decision. Why? As you aptly put it, there is a high possibility that viewers will move with popular and credible anchors. As a result, adverts on citizen media will cost more due to the increased viewership.
Secondly, I do agree that we should set higher benchmarks than the previous regime. However, some political tactics will NEVER, and i repeat, NEVER change. Use of propaganda machinery happens everywhere, even in developed democracies. The evangelicals in the US have consistently propagated the Bush agenda. Even leaders as 'great' as Nyerere had to use, to some extent, propaganda machinery. I propose that we should view them as tools of the trade, just as a carpenter needs a saw. It is the height of political naivety or ignorance to imagine that propaganda machinery do not exist.
Finally, I truly believe that propaganda can be a good tool for any person with a political agenda. Furthermore, although the ethnic tensions in Kenya are high, the main cause of clashes is political support i.e. funding and incitement of the masses by tribal chiefs. The move by the political elite to use propaganda as a political tool signifies that the politics of using clashes has come to an end. We, the kenyan people, should view this as a necessary step of progression towards an era of 'cleaner' politics.
Guys sobre up. For the first time I can smell people who have read through the cable of Chrissm and Taabusm. These are individuals who use a lot of pomposity to deliver a very small message not worth the words.
ReplyDeleteI have never been a Kibaki supporter but the arguments put forward by these characters are ridiculous. Instead of u guys questioning the role of KBC in political propaganda airing u are here trying to lecture to a private business how they should run their enterprises. I mean for heavens sake u guys pay taxes to the government hence the need for u to lobby for proper utilisation of ur hard earned income. u choose not to do that but come up with some laughable allegations that a news anchor of admirable repute has lost her eye sight coz she is no longer going to play a part in "covering" a particular presidential candidate.
Every average kenyan knows that citizen is a gutter press house. they are kibaki's propaganda machine and this was manifested very loudly in the banana campaigns but I do not think that is a matter of national debate as u guys want us to believe.The press all over the world have favourite political groups. Even KTN with all due respect for them are the same company with "The Standard" and Chris and Taabu do not have to be geniuses to see how skewed standard's coverage of kenyan politics has been. They are competing with the other gutter press series in trying to air political propaganda in favour of a certain presidential candidate. I hate citizen with a passion and everybody in our household knows it. BUT for heavens sake these "Intelligent" brothers of ours also have an obligation to blog about the standard unless they are just showcasing how narrow their interest in these respects have been.
Macharia should go hang but it is not for me to dictate to him who to hire or what presidential candidate to support. I gotta take the remote and do the necessary.
The whole media fratenity in Kenya is full of biasedn breporting. Everyone knows KTN belongs to the Moi family, Citizen the Kibaki presidency and KBc by whoever is in state house. All media outlets should just declare which side they root for.After all it isn't a crime, is it?
ReplyDeleteNation is not any better though it tries to maintain a certain degree of impartiarity but with members of a certain tribe holding all top positions is it any wonder it tends to lean more to the current govt?