Everybody knows that despite the ownership of the Standard group, there is no love lost between the Kibaki administration and this media house.
Was that why somebody walked into the Standard group and in one single swipe plucked out all the senior news anchors? It is instructive that during the notorious raid on the Standard by hooded gunmen, the policemen carrying it out specifically asked for Njoroge Mwaura (who had left minutes before) and now he is the only one who has not been plucked out by Citizen from KTN. That one cannot be a mere coincidence, I assure you.
So what information did Mwaura have that attracted attention from the police?
In fact Mwaura looks fairly lonely these days reading the news with novices and guys younger than his children. (The Catherine Kasavuli and Njoroge Mwaura combination was perfect and it is sad that it has come to an end). Incidentally with all due respect to Catherine, it seems that now would be a good time to retire anyway. I have documentary proof on tape of her stammering and hesitant during prime time news. I am not surprised at the angry comments that greeted my earlier post where I said this. Ms Kasavuli is loved by Kenyans, amazingly she is the only Kenyan I know who has grown prettier with the years.
But my question is, even if you raid a competitor, shouldn't you at least give them time to reorganize? It will be very hard for anybody to convince me that there was no ill-motive intended here.
Meanwhile Kenyans wait with bated breath to see the KTN News anchors on air at Citizen, which will happen from the beginning of April. Maybe the first thing the professionals should do is advice the Citizen management that red or orange or whatever that screaming background color they use is, is not a colour that is conducive to TV broadcasting.
A Little creativity made Kenyan man $1,000 in daily profits
This woman has never heard sex, the reason will shock you.
Phil Says:
ReplyDeleteCitizen suffered similar fate a few years ago when KissFM poached a majority of their anchors when launching their Classic FM channel. I remember SK Macharia lamenting that the action by Kiss was aimed at ensuring Citizen does not go on air the following day! KTN should not complain. The airwaves are liberalised and workers are free to legally change employment as they wish. The onus is now on KTN to pick up the gauntlet if it hopes to remain relevant to consumers. Infact they should strive to be innovative and stop replicating Skynews and CNN. They need to come up with new ideas in programming, and leave old ones to Citizen and Nation.
Chris:
ReplyDeleteYou seem to blame Citizen for 'raiding' KTN and taking all it's anchors.
First, it is a Capitalist country so corporate wars are inevitable.
Second, you seem to be stuck in the "Kenyans can't imagine life without..." mentality. Life changes and frankly, if not for the sex scandals in the media houses, there would be hundreds of more talent on television. BTW, if you could get your hands on this months edition of TIME, there is an article on how CBS hasn't gained much on watchers after poaching Katie Couric. Which goes to say that if people like Louis Otieno, they might just like him while at KTN and may not switch channels or their votes for that matter. People are smarter than that.
Last but most importantly, no one has arm twisted the anchors to move to Citizen. They could have turned down whatever offers made to them on principles. They, like most of us Kenyans, are for sale to the highest bidder. EVery Kenyan wants to be rich at whatever cost--including the soul.
What exactly is Chris suggesting here? We are reading from a man who is completely out of touch with what he is writing about. One moment u tell us how ktn is owned by Moi and how Moi is supporting Kibaki and the next minute u tell us how Kibaki is making anchors lose eye sight and start to stammer by influencing their transfer to another station.
ReplyDeleteThis is a capitalist economy where the best employer attracts the best workers. There is nothing like fairness or is it lack of it here. It is competitive commerce at play. If u want us to discuss the standard raid then u are making sense. that was dictatorship and press muzzling but the moment u try to give lectures to Kasavuli and company on whom they should work for just to suit ur ego then the difference betwen u and the likes of Kalembe gets very blurred.
Vikii, I do agree alot with you. Chris should not tell p[eople that Citizen are thriving or attracting reporters from KTN because of Kibaki.
ReplyDeletethis is a private enterprise and nothing should stop the habitual hopping of Kenyan journalists from one media house to the other.
At first, I though that KTN was on fire, when iot was said that all readers are leaving, whene reading, I realised that it was only Kasavuli and Lious (appraently sacked) who had left for Citizen.
As Vikii says above, there should be some kind of sober arguments that you make. Even when saying that Moi family onws the Standard and it is run by a Kikuyu, you contradict yourself since, the entire East African standard newspaper bit is under one YK92 operative Kwendo Opanaga.
There is this department (Sports) that has every other writer as Luhya. Indeed, apart from one well lnown one, all others are from one tribe. Then take the days when David Makali, Kwamchetsi Makokha, Finny Muyeshi, Pamela Makotsi, Kwendo Opanga were all appearing as editors, what do you make of that. Talk bout realities man!
kip says
ReplyDeletehey, wait a minute! ati catherine kasivuli has moved to citizen and louie otieno got sacked? kwani how much behind am i in news? i must admit i have totally lost touch with what is going on in kenya right now, am a KTN number one fun, and this topic of KTN ANCHORS being poached by citizen tv kind of struck me. i never thought even for a minute that catherine kasivuli will ever leave KTN especially for a least popular and poorly organised tv station like citizen tv..i find it pretty hard to imagine even for a second seeing catherine kasivuli of all the the people reading news on citizen tv, men that is whack! my point here is that, am really disappointed by the move at which my one time role model kasivuli has taken. i know it is her right to switch stations anytime she wants but not to switch to stations like citizen...she has totally degraded herself!
Not apparently sacked, but, actually sacked. He was caught on CCTV in a compromising sexual situation in the I & M Basement
ReplyDeletekip says..
ReplyDeleteif i can ask, who now read news in KTN PRIME? is njoroge junior still around or he got fired too. and what about ktn leo? is lovely mwanaisha kizuga still around or there is a new person in ? please, somebody tell me.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteYou have a misguided notion that businesses are there to uphold purported 'morals'. Business wars are and will always be there. That is capitalism for you. If you believe that Citizen's move was 'out to finish KTN' and it is immoral, then i really doubt you skills as an enterpreneur.
Whwn you decided to start selling papers from door to door, then the idea of giving a potential buyer a miniature paper, or brochure to peruse before purchase of the paper, what was it intended for? Probably to increase sales. Therefore, i view poaching of anchors as a business decision, pure ans simple.
There is no way you can justify or insinuate that the poachings had another moptive and as such we should condemn it. Clearly, your bias is showing.
I think you are a socialist at heart, and as such your objectivity in corporate matters is lacking.
the fact that some anchor has moved from one station to another is neither here nor there. after all the anchors have made it an art to shift from one station to another.all that i know is that I will never watch citizen news even if they poach all the anchors.after all its a free country.bob
ReplyDeleteSo Njoroge has been left alone at KTN? Big deal. If Standard group value him at all, why cant they promote him to some managerial position. That guy has been reading news since time immemorial. He does not have a splendid voice, no sense of humour - really nothing special. He is not a legend and the only thing he lacks is guts to move on!
ReplyDeleteKTN has had the advantage as the first privately owned TV station in the Nation and they have not taken advantage (compare them to Safaricom)