At the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Media Programme for Sub-Sahara Africa & Sol Plaatje Media Leadership Institute. Nairobi Safari Club, Nairobi, Kenya 4-7 April 2006.
Just arrived in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi today and set my clock one hour forwards. I coincidentally sat next Alec Hogg, MD of Moneyweb, on the flight from Joburg to Nairobi and we had a very interesting conversation, largely around Google and how we love and hate it — and how Google is changing our business models and the way people see and read our websites.
Nairobi is pretty green after some recent rains so its looking pretty. I was a bit disappointed by the airport — its mostly old and run down, although apparently quite good compared to many others in Africa. To be honest, it’s not what I would have expected from one of Africa’s powerhouse economies (Kenya must rank number 4 after South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria in terms of GDP size?). You can see that despite its relatively strong economy — Kenya is still a struggling country. It’s clear from what I saw on the drive from the airport to our hotel that the government needs to spend more on infrastructure here.
And I am on dial-up. I thought I said goodbye to dialup. Dialup is here to haunt me again. Go away 28.8 kbps per second… ahhh I’ve been spoilt by 3G. If I had got roaming (which I forgot to do) I would have been able to use my 3G card because Vodafone is all over this place.
We’re at the Safari Club Hotel for a conference “AFRICAN MEDIA LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE East Meets South: Strategic Challenges for African Media” with some top South African and East African media minds, including Moneyweb MD Alec Hogg, Mail & Guardian CEO Trevor Ncube, The Media MD Sandra Gordon, Wangethi Mwangi, Editorial Director of Nation Media Group, Kenya, Francis Mdlongwa, Director of post-graduate Sol Plaatje Media Leadership Institute, Rhodes University, South Africa, Ingo Capraro, Editor, Die Son, South Africa, Prof Nixon Kariithi, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, Judy Sandison, Head New Media Unit, SABC Newsbreak and others.
I’m presenting a case study on the M&G Online with the title: “Integrating Opportunities from New Media”. I’ll post the presentation here when I am finished it… I like to tinker to the last minute.
Prozac for cats….
Baked potato prozac. Prozac….
IS THIS TRUE ABOUT WANGETHI MWANGI AND NATION MEDIA GROUP (NMG)?!!!!!!!!!!
Breaking News
EXPOSED: THE MOTHER OF ALL SEX SCANDALS IN NATION MEDIA GROUP PART ONE
Preamble
We made a promise in January. And we hereby fulfill that promise. We, a group of patriotic journalists from Nation Media Group, held a meeting in early November and listed the issues that we felt were impacting negatively in the affairs of the Editorial Department.
The first meeting was attended by more than 80 journalists – correspondents and reporters and a few editors sympathetic to our course – and it was resolved that by writing to the in-coming CEO, Mr Linus Gitahi, we would give him an alternative picture from the one he had been given by our managers. We have the support of the majority of journalists on 3rd floor (newspapers) and 6th floor (broadcasting) and staff from other departments. We have been getting very positive feedback from the staff of all cadres – including senior managers – through the anonymous yahoo emails we have been using to send the stuff.. And contrary to the thoughts of Linus and the sex-for-promotion managers and editors, these emails are the brainchild of journalists in 3rd floor and we don’t work with outsiders. The stuff is prepared and served to your dinning table from right here.
All the bureaus were well represented and the secret meeting appointed a committee of experienced journalists to spearhead the process of updating Linus on what had gone wrong in the Editorial. The minutes and the list of all the journalists who attended and their ID Numbers are available. We deposited the documents with our advocate so that what we agreed on is binding to all of us. All those who attended took an oath not to betray their colleagues or the course. We are happy that we have remained together despite various attempts by the Security Manager, Mr Sam Koskei, and the NMG leadership to send moles to spy on us. So far so good. No one has become a traitor.
We are happy that our mission has been a success despite efforts by Koskei to monitor the phones and computers and plant moles in the newsroom to find out who have been writing these mails. Owino Opondo and Mugo Njeru should just give up. Koskei and Linus should have been a little bit smarter. We wrote two letters to Linus in December since we did not trust the leadership of the Editorial Department – the Group Editorial Director, Mr Wangethi Mwangi, and Mr Joseph Odindo, would give Linus the correct picture since the two were solely to blame for the mess and decay in this crucial department. We thought that Linus was a major departure from the past and he would clean up the mess that his predecessor decided to live with. We thought that since Linus was a young and energetic man, he would be in a better position to understand the issues and clean up the mess. Wilfred Kiboro was so close to his managers, eg Wangethi Mwangi, and Dennis Aluanga, and he did not bother to act even when some of the men whose wives had been taken over by the sex-hungry managers wrote letters to complain and presented him with evidence. He argued that sex affairs were personal decisions and they had nothing to do with NMG.
The Editorial Dept is the heart and engine of NMG, and this is the plain reality in any media house all over the world. So, if all was not well in this Dept, the stench is bound to resonate and be reflected in all the other departments. The Editorial Dept is the moral conscience of NMG, the largest media house in East and Central African region. What we write reflects the views and aspirations of the entire group, the views of the founder, His Highness the Aga Khan, and the shareholders. However, morals in this department have decayed under the watchful eye of Wangethi and Odindo and we highly doubt that the Aga Khan would be part of it. The department has lost its glory due to chronic corruption, sex scandals and manipulation of NMG’s independent editorial policy by outsiders. The two senior editors belong to a small clique of managers who have turned Nation Centre into a brothel and they have turned other people’s wives into their own mistresses or concubines. We will demonstrate later.
We understand that when the first letters landed on Linus desk, he promptly called Wangethi and Odindo and demanded an explanation from them. As anyone would expect, they denied. But what was shocking to us, Linus took their word as the gospel truth and the matter was buried there and then. He did not even institute independent investigations to the serious issues we had raised in our letters. We went back to the drawing board in January and the meeting resolved that we should use all the means at our disposal to make Linus see some sense in what we were saying. Before Linus took over at Nation Centre, the HR Dept had issued Climate Survey forms which all journalists were to highlight the problems that faced the Editorial and how to solve them. We said everything in the forms. Soon after he reported to Nation, Linus told us he had gone through the issues we had raised in the forms and he would act on them. Our letters had raised the same issues and more importantly raised serious about moral decadence in the Editorial Dept. And we named the Editors and managers who preyed on other people’s wives or those who were involved in the sex-for-promotion-or-hire scandals.
After being convinced (or out of fearing the managers he found at NMG and who are much older than him), Linus decided he would not act on either the letters we had sent him or the views in the Climate Survey forms. According to him, the letters were anonymous and the journalists who filled the forms did not append their names. He simply said he does not respond to anonymous letters! When we met again in January, we resolved to take our campaigns much higher. We decided to use the only weapon we had at our disposal – the pen. We decided that since Linus had blocked his ears, we should expose the rot in NMG to the outside world. And that is what we are doing today. We resolved to use the internet to tell the world what goes on in Nation Centre.
First, we wrote to Linus and we gave all the top editors and managers of Nation Media Group, who have been involved in a string of sex scandals an ultimatum of up to February 28 to resign. But they opted to stay put. The ultimatum lapsed yesterday and none of them has shown any willingness to throw in the towel. We believe the top executives who have embarrassed the journalism profession are well known and they also know themselves. It’s pay back time and we now lift the lid to shame them.
We, journalists, are viewed by the public as the watchdog of the society. It’s our business to expose and criticize political leaders implicated in all manner of malpractices. Be it corruption, sex scandals, political turn coats; name it. We do so while standing on a moral high ground. However, we can’t be taken seriously by the public unless we first clean the skeletons in our cupboards and demonstrate by actions and deeds that we stand by the values NMG stand for and what we give out to our readers every day. We have taken this initiative on own after the new leadership under Linus closed all avenues of dialogue and reasoning and failing to take action against managers who have brought disrepute to NMG. You have the evidence Linus but you don’t want to act. The time for sacred cows is gone.
It’s now our turn to use the same weapon we have been using against other people. We will turn the spotlight on the managers of Nation Media Group, which prides itself as the mirror of the society and the second gospel after the Bible and the Koran. We will from today begin to unveil the dark secrets the walls of Nation Centre have concealed for years. We will, without bias and prejudice, expose the editors who oversee the editorial matters of NMG and the public will for the first time know the stinking rot that is within Nation Centre.
What you are about to read is only a tip of the iceberg. More shocking news will be coming your way later in the month. In an attempt to buy our silence, Linus has been busy organizing retreats for us in Limuru in the false believe that the move will cool off the heat. That is escaping from the reality. Instead of taking a decisive action, Linus has engaged in a merry-go-round sort of administration in the hope that he will buy time and we will give up. We will never give up. The noise will become even more louder, the more he continues to display his contempt to 3rd floor and we are the people who toil like slaves to pay his Sh2.5 million plus salary every month. Isn’t it immoral for him to earn that kind of money while we are languishing in abject poverty?
In exposing our bosses, we are ready and prepared to bite the bullet and put our jobs on the line for the sake of redeeming the image of the Editorial Department and the entire media house. We believe His Highness the Aga Khan did not built Nation Centre with holy funds so that senior managers can turn it into a brothel. How we wish carpets and walls of Nation Centre can talk! Why have we decided to blow off the lidThis campaign was launched with a strong desire to cleanse the Editorial Dept and ensure we practice the same values we preach in our newspapers and on the radio and the TV daily. The biggest beneficiary of our campaign will be our female colleagues who have for so long suffered in silence while they are being abused and used as sex objects by managers who don’t respect themselves and their families. We have taken this bold step to liberate our female colleagues and alert men who have wives in Nation Centre that all is not well. Your wives might be suffering in silence and you don’t know.
We hope Fida and other organizations that champion the rights of women are listening. What goes on behind the walls of Nation Centre, the imposing and elegant building in the heart of
Nairobi, is not just publishing newspapers. There are dark secrets that the walls have concealed for years. Female employees have suffered in silence as bosses use them as sex toys to quench their sexual greed. Nation has for years been so critical of the Government and pretends to be the champion of the truth and the injustices in the society. It’s ironical that the same company can work so hard to suppress the truth internally and internal democracy. Any member of staff who dares raise a finger is shown the door. Linus sent Koskei to the offices of the weekly Citizen newspaper in the second week of February to buy papers that were rolling off the press on the unfolding story of the sex scandal rocking Nation. The paper had carried the first story when we first exposed the scandal in public in January and demanded the resignation of the sex predators. To stop further publication Koskei used millions of funds from Nation – the money for shareholders and the Aga Khan – to buy the paper’s silence. He succeeded since the paper has since given the scandal a blackout. In addition to bribing the gutter press, Linus and Co. have instructed the IT Dept to block the internet to ensure we don’t circulate the mails on the sex scandal to the entire world. That is a simplistic way of reasoning. What are cyber cafes for? Are you going to block internet worldwide from today henceforth? The real Tsunami is coming. You would better move to higher grounds.
Since we started exposing the scandal through letters and emails, the argument by Linus has been that he can’t respond to anonymous writers. We would be so foolish to append our names to the letters for that would earn us instant tickets back to our villages. If the argument by Linus is valid and has any substance, then Nation would never have published anything since most of the stories we publish are from anonymous sources. Two examples stands out – the Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing scandals, which rocked the regimes of retired President Moi and his successor, Mwai Kibaki, respectively. Nation was the first newspaper to serialize the two scandals. In the Goldenberg scandal, Nation relied on an anonymous dossier leaked by Central Bank of
Kenya employees and in the Anglo Leasing one, Wangethi and Odindo solely relied on the dossier of Githongo. Only when Standard and other media houses started serializing the dossier did Nation reveal that it was from Githongo.
If Nation could trust and go ahead to publish sensitive dossiers leaked to it by outsiders – which threatened to bring down the regimes of Moi and Kibaki – isn’t it strange then that the same Nation can’t trust the same journalists whom it relies on to write the stories their newspapers publish? Why should readers continue believing in what we write if Linus and his leadership can’t trust an anonymous dossier we have sent to him? Everything we have penned in the letters we have been sending to Linus is the basic and solid truth that everyone in Nation Centre knows too well about. Just the same way we treat secret dossiers sent to us by anonymous sources, Linus should treat our letters in the same way. Names of the authors are not important. What is important is the message. Is what he is being told by the journalists the truth? It would be ridiculous if the police or Ringera’s boys get a tip off about a serious crime that is about to take place or which has already taken place and they refused to respond or act because the caller is anonymous!
The behaviour by Linus and his leadership tells Kenyans a lot about Nation and its lies about standing for the truth. It is now evident that the truth is only sweet when Nation is exposing the Goldenberg, Anglo Leasing, the rot in the Government, parastatals and in other corporate organizations. But the truth becomes so bitter when told about NMG editors and managers. They would prefer the truth to remain buried. From today, we begin a systematic and a long journey of removing the veil and mask that has for years concealed dark and harrowing secrets in Nation Centre. Anyone messing around with journalists should know that its like messing around with a scorned woman. From today, we will tell you the inside story about the sex scandals that have left many female employees terrified and leading shattered and traumatized lives. In this respect, we call upon the following organizations to take a firm stand against the Nation Media Group and demand the immediate resignation of all the kings who have turned female employees into sex pests:
1. Kenya
Union of Journalists (KUJ)
1. The International Federation of Journalists
1. The Federation of Women Lawyers –
Kenya (FIDA)
1. Hon Newton Kulundu, Minister for Labour
1. Federation of
Kenya Employers (FKE)
1. Central Organisation of Trade Union (COTU)
1. The Law Society of
Kenya
Apart from resigning and retreating to the comforting arms of their wives, some of whom appear to have accepted to live with their men despite having being accused of being involved sex scandals with their junior female for over a decade, the Aga Khan should order a major investigations and he will be shocked that the managers whom he has trusted to run his affairs are monsters who keep the female folks terrified. They have turned the respected Nation Centre into a brothel.
Most of these managers are good material for Kamiti and it’s surprising that they have evaded jail for so long. Wangethi is a classic example. He has been taken to court twice over allegations of attempted rape and sexual harassment. But since he belongs to the inner circle of the ruling Kikuyu elite in Nation Centre, he is untouchable. His famous court case with court reporter Njeri Mwangi over attempted rape in his vehicle will feature in our next issue. Wangethi Mwangi’s famous love affair with a junior employee Linda Gacheru, whose bridegroom-to-be had to call off a planned church wedding because of the secret affair, is another classic example. We will tell you what the jilted lover told Kiboro in letters that were serialized by the now defunct Finance Magazine. We will also tell you how Wangethi almost ruined Linda’s second planned marriage with a different man on the morning of the wedding when the bridegroom bitterly questioned the presence of a NMG driver and whose Mercedez Benz the driver had been assigned to carry the bridegroom. We will reveal more in the next issue. Wangethi has been fighting one sex scandal after another but his wife seems to have accepted to live with the problem.
To make you have a better understanding that the issues of sex scandals ran deep in all the media houses, not just NMG, take a look at a story run on February 24 Saturday Nation on page 21. It was a story about how a KTN news anchor who had filed complaints of rape against a well known state counsel and part-time KTN news anchor, Mr. Nathan Browne Birundu, lost a good case on technicality. Birundu had been convicted of rape and sent to jail for four years for luring the girl, who was then working for KBC, into a lodging in
Nairobi on pretext of getting her a better job in KTN. He then raped her. But the man appealed and the case was thrown out. When the matter of the KTN rape saga became public almost five years ago, NMG editors panicked and instructed court reporters to give the story a blackout. They feared that the case would open a flood gate of similar cases against other editors who engaged in such behaviour. The harrowing experience that the KTN anchor went through is what most interns and job applicants go through in the hands of influential NMG editors. It’s called sex-for-hire in the newsroom circles. For a long time, the joke in the newsroom was that there were two sets of interviews.
One of them was the office one and the other was most crucial – in hotels and lodgings. The joke was that those who performed well in sex got an instant job and the office interview was a matter of formality. This was so rampant when Tom Mshindi was the Managing Editor of the Daily Nation. Then, Frank Whalley, the Briton who was brought in as the Aga Khan to be the Training Editor, took over the mantle from Tom and he left Nation with an sex-for-hire record all other editors envy. We won’t embarrass the more than 15 innocent girls who had to be subjected to Frank’s sex orgy by naming them. Some of them are still in Nation and they are well known. Two of them we last year sent on a training programme to
France by Frank and they have never written any readable story since they were put on NMG’s payroll almost three years ago. We have interviewed some of the girls and preserved their testimony. How the dossier was compiledWe have several options at our disposal to force the sex-for-promotion-or-hire editors and managers to leave Nation. This is only of the options.
The most painful part will be when we present the dossier and evidence in our passion to their spouses and children. The sex predators have inflicted deep pain in the hearts of many and we will in turn inflict their hearts with worse pain. The pain will increase with intensity the more they remain defiant. Continue watching this space. How many have families has Wangethi, Odindo, Nabutola, Aluanga, Wanjala and Co. forced to break up because they converted other people’s wives to be their girlfriends? You’ll now pay the hearts you shattered and the pains you inflicted those families. A majority of the women who have been taken to bed by NMG bosses were not willing accomplices. The women either gave in to secure jobs and promotions and for fear of being sacked. We pity Claire Gatheru that she was axed in the recent retrenchment despite being used by NMG bosses like a pit latrine. Read on for her full story.
Our team, which comprised experienced journalists, worked closely with private investigators we have hired and this enabled us to piece together the untold story of the sex lives of our managers and editors. This will sound like a horror movie from the
Hollywood but we assure you that it’s real and accurate. Our team of experienced researchers and private investigators talked to more than 150 people, including both staff, friends and relatives of those implicated, and relied on documents and photographic material to piece together this shocking story. We also relied on data from the courts, police records and Safaricom and Celtel. We do not intend to embarrass anyone or any organization. We will protect and conceal the identity of our colleagues and the institutions which gave us useful information that enabled us to compile in this dossier on the shocking sex lives of our bosses.
Our story will begin with the shocking story of how Ms Adhiambo Odera, was employed under the influence of the Group Editorial Director, Mr Wangethi Mwangi, and his long-time friend, the Group Managing Editor, Mr Joseph Odindo, after she extended sexual favours to them. It’s a story that will shock you and the entire world. Linus Wang’ombe GitahiNMG’s CEOIn the course of our task of unearthing the sex scandal at NMG, a former colleague of Linus at the GlaxoSmithKline posted a scandalous mail in the following link http://kumekucha.blogspot.com/2007/01/sex-scandals-and-purge-hit-nation-media.html alleging that the CEO was not an angle and he was currently fighting a nasty and messy divorce case in the High Court and that he is a gay! Oooh No!
The anonymous writer called us a bunch of jokers asking why we were exposing our own bosses and we had not managed to scrutinize the past life of Linus. The insults hurled at journalists by the writer are part of our work. It’s our work as journalists not to ignore or dismiss any information or rumour. The tip off has give a new dimension to our investigation and we are following the leads given by your former colleague. However, we wish to state categorically that our mission is not to propagate and spread falsehood against any of the top NMG managers. We will only disclose what is factual and has been verified by cross-checking claims from various sources. So, Linus can rest assured that we will only expose him if we find out the truth. And it will be interesting to know your background and history for us to be able to understand why you so passionately protect NMG managers involved implicated in sex scandals. The research team has not dug out much information on Linus but we promise to bring it out in the Part Two of the sex scandal rocking the Aga Khan’s house. However, the team has made inquiries at the High Court’s Family Division and confirmed it was indeed true that Linus was at the centre of a nasty case of divorce involving another couple. But the file has disappeared from the registry and we were informed that Linus might have bribed the clerks to hide it to ensure we did not lay our hands of it.
According to lawyers privy to the divorce case, Linus found himself on the hot spot when a man who discovered he was having a secret affair with his wife filed a divorce case at the High Court. In his affidavit, the jilted lover recounts the pain he felt when he established that his wife was a girlfriend of Linus. As part of his evidence, the plaintiff has tabled in court a photograph of Linus and his wife making love in his own bed (the man’s). Our investigators are trying to lay their hands on the photograph and they are also investigating claims that Linus had a soft spot for Rose Kimotho, the Kameme FM proprietor, who is also a girlfriend of many media practitioners and politicians. The questions which have so far emerged from our preliminary investigations on Linus are:
• Is he actually a gay as his former colleagues alleges?
• Does he have any intimate affair with Rose Kimotho?
• Did he ever buy the silence of his former secretary at GlaxoSmithKline after she accused him of raping her on the office carpet?
• Why did he drop his middle name Wang’ombe when he joined the corporate world yet this was the name everyone at theUniversity of
Nairobi knew?
• Did he try to influence editors of other media houses not to publish stories on his divorce case soon after taking over from Mr Kiboro for fear it would ruin his career and reputation?
If it’s true you are a gay, you can take pride in that there are other gay partners you can link up with in the newsroom. Mwangi G (of 3rd floor), Rashid Ronald and Baset Biyuka (both of NTV), have found a suitor.
Unknown to the public, the media have the unwritten rule that bars any of them from exposing the dirt of their rivals or reporting any negative story that will damage their reputation. That is why no media house reports when another is sued for libel or the subsequent court proceedings. And the same silence falls when a media house is found guilty by the court and ordered to pay a fine. But the opposite is shocking. If a media house wins a libel or defamation case, they shout about it to the point of bursting your ear drums. No media has dared to report the damaging sex scandal at NMG or the Linus divorce case. The role of exposing the rot in the media houses has been taken up by the alternative press, whom the leading media houses show a lot of contempt.
However, the recent events at the alternative press political weekly, The Weekly Citizen, are indeed shocking. It’s the only paper which dared publish the story on the NMG sex scandal when it broke out but the subsequent follow up stories that were lined up did not see the light of the day after NMG’s Security Manager, Sam Koskei, visited their offices and bought all the papers rolling from the press and offered a hefty bribe to the editors of the paper. We will keep you updated on the Linus sex life as soon as new details emerge.
Adhiambo OderaBuzz EditorSunday Nation.To enable you to understand why this woman is so much at the centre of the sex scandals rocking Nation Centre, we will take you through her sex mind by reproducing what she had written in the latest issue of the Sunday Nation of February 25 in the Editor’s Mix column: I HAVE BEEN RUNNING AROUND LIKE A HEADLESS CHICKEN NOT BECAUSE I HAVE LOST DERECTION BUT BECAUSE MY
CELEB CIRCLE
SUDDENLY DECIDED TO MAKE SURE I HEAR THEM OUT.
TRUE, NEW BEAU ALVAN SHOWED UP (I TRACKED HIM DOWN ACTUALLY BUT CAN’T SAY, WON’T SAY). WE TOK A LEISURELY DRIVE TOPRESTIGE
PLAZA WHERE WE SETTLED FOR A COOL AFTERNOON DRINK. MAN, THIS BOY IS WORTH IT, WHEN IS THE LAST TIME ONE CALLED ME SUGAR AND MEANT IT? OK, LOVI CALLED ME BABY BUT SUGAR IS SO MUCH SWETER!….TEDDY JOSIAH CALLED JUST IN TIME TO TERMINATE THAT SOLO MEETING AND DEMANDED THAT HE PLAYS CHAPERON. WE AGREED THEREFORE TO MEET AT TEDD’S STUDIO NEXT WEEK WHERE NAMELESS AND WINYO WILL ALSO BE IN ATTENDANCE.
NAMELESS AND MYSELF HAVE MISSED EACH OTHER. WE CALLED EACH OTHER UP AND DECIDED COFFE WAS MORE LIKE IT. THE MARRIED HOT GUY ARRIVED AT LAVAZZA IN A WHITE VEST AND I WENT WOW! HE HAS BEEN BABY SITTING, DOING HIS MUSIC AND THINKING ABOUT A NEW WAY TO MAKE MORE MONEY. HE SHASED ME INDUSTRY SECRETS AND MADE ME SWEAR TO KEEP MY BIG MOUTH SHUT FOR JUST A LITTLE BIT.
THEN I HAD A CANDID CHAT WITH TERRY MUNGAI, SHE OF ASHLEY’S WHO WANTED ME TO PARTICIPATE IN JUDGING THE NEXT MR
KENYA. I SENT IRENE INSTEAD BECAUSE I FIGURED AM ALREADY VERY BIASED IN WHAT I DEEM BEAUTIFUL (SEE, I LOVE BEAUTIFUL MEN). IRENE CAME BACK GLOWING AND WITH MANY PHONE NUMBERS, SHE HAS SINCE SHARED SOME AND WE HAVE SERIOUS EASTER PLANS…..”Yes, that is Adhiambo Odera, who prefers to be called by her initials, AO. After reading what our research team gathered about her, turn back to the passage above and make your own conclusions. We start with the untold story revolving around this woman since it best illustrates the shocking sex-for-promotion scam at Nation Media Group.Just like most of the Luos in NMG (we are not being tribal as we will explain later), this woman found her way to Nation Centre through one Joe Odindo.
She came in as an inter cum correspondent, despite the fact that she had been to a back-street private college and her grades were not impressive at all. NMG’s policy on hiring correspondents or employing permanent staff clearly sets out a clear criteria of the minimum qualifications. Any journalist wishing to join NMG must have a minimum qualification of a first degree from a reputable university and at least a diploma in journalism In the case of Adhiambo, she is a Form Four graduate and holds a certificate from a dubious private college. Other job applicants with her qualifications would find it hard joining NMG like somebody trying to squeeze a needle hole.
When Odindo set his eyes on Adhiambo, he could not resist the temptation. Her huge and swaging bottoms had their toll on the manhood that is in Odindo and he found himself in bed with her. And Adhiambo is not a fool. She knows her body is magical to any weak man and she exploits it to the maximum for her own survival. Adhiambo may have little brains compared to her swaging and bumpy bottoms. But she is a schemer. She knew Odindo had no powers to employ anyone. The power is a preserve of the Kikuyu mafia in NMG led by Wangethi, Helen Mbugua (Human Resources Director) and at the time, Mr Wilfred Kiboro, who was the CEO. Unless one has good connections with the Kikuyu mafia, chances of getting a job in NMG is very slim.
Adhiambo had done her homework well. Once she had lured Odindo to bed, she cleverly worked out her maneuvers with the ultimate price being the post of the Buzz Editor. Her friends told the investigations team that she knew her qualifications could not earn her a job, even that of a copy taker, in NMG. To her credit, she utilized her natural asset, which she exploited to get a job and she has continued to exploit it to date for her survival in NMG. She very well knew that Odindo, Wangethi, Mutuma Mathiu (current Managing Editor of the Sunday Nation and her immediate boss), and other influential editors were so weak on the slightest provocation or sight of a skirt. And Adhiambo knew she had an edge over other women. The huge spider-like bottoms that she swaggers in the newsroom, leaving many men breathless, salivating and wetting their pants. Few men resist the temptation to follow Adhiambo with her eyes every time she decides to parade her body in the newsroom.
Adhiambo knew Odindo and Wangethi were very close buddies and she had to use her own kinsman as a stepping stone to catch Wangethi’s eye. The trick worked. It was Odindo who presented the proposal to Wangethi to bring Adhiambo to Nation and when Wangethi’s eyes had the first contact with the woman, his blood turned hot and he had no hesitation not to agree with the request. He had his eyes on the ultimate prize! Wangethi saw the academic papers presented a major obstacle and he and Odindo agreed that they should first bring her on board through the back door as an “intern”. But Adhiambo’s ambitions could not hold back. She continued to work her sex magic in her and that is how she ended up in Malindi with Wangethi during the 2004 Christmas break. The two lovers were lucky to have survived the deadly killer waves of tsunami when they hit Malindi. The staff of the resort club where Wangethi and Adhiambo where staying told our investigators that they spent two nights there and they left in a hurry after the tsunami struck. Wangethi looked badly shaken.
According to Adhiambo, her friends told our research team, she made maximum use out of the outing. She worked up Wangethi sexually and he admitted that no other woman had ever drained him like her. It was while the two were in Malindi that Wangethi promised Adhiambo that he would influence her employment. On return to
Nairobi, Adhiambo had graduated from a poor correspondent (the casual employees that NMG exploits their labour and blood for peanuts) to the Editor of Buzz magazine. She takes home more than Sh150,000 every month excluding the hefty fictitious entertainment allowances she claims every week.
Back in
Nairobi, Wangethi and Odindo jointly worked out how to shuttle aside Zipporah Musau, who was then in charge of the Buzz magazine, to pave way for their shares girlfriend. But the two gentlemen had up to this time not known that they were sharing her. They came to know about it when we first revealed it in the first letter we sent to Linus Gitahi in November soon after he arrived in Nation Centre. But they denied they had an affair with her when Linus summoned them. But they were both left badly wounded by the revelation that they shared Adhiambo. Zipporah’s academic credentials are impeccable. At the time she was a university graduate, a diploma in journalism and had a wealth of experience. But she had to pave way for this shared girlfriend ya wadoss!
Zipporah’s fate was sealed she was demoted and given the job of sub-editor for Buzz and she was to be answerable to none other than the Form Four drop out, Adhiambo. Zipporah could not stomach it and opted to confront Odindo and Wangethi and told them in their face she knew why she was being humiliated. Out of frustration, she applied for a scholarship and left for the
UK for a Masters degree programme. To ensure she did not return to NMG, Odindo and Wangethi flatly declined to give her unpaid study leave and demanded that she must resign. The two knew she stood few chances of making a comeback once she had resigned. While in Malindi, Adhiambo took pride of being laid by the mean-looking and feared Wangethi Mwangi. She sent several SMS text messages to her friends informing them she was with Wangethi in the coast. One of the text sent to her friend read thus: “Sasa. Howz city? I’m in Malindi having fun with my new boyfriend Wangethi. I’ll be bk after 4 dayz.” Another text Adhiambo sent to Wangethi read: “Howz u my darling? I loved
ur great love-making skills. Don’t forget the jobo u promised me.” A friend of Adhiambo downloaded the text and saved it in her own phone when she borrowed it to make a call.
This is another email that was downloaded in her phone from Odindo: “I badly need u tonight. R u available? Reply pliz” Never mind this woman is married and with one child. Back to
Nairobi, after the two were forced to abruptly cancel their outing by tsunami, Adhiambo took pride in displaying to all and sundry a digital camera she had been given by Wangethi in Malindi. And she did not hide the fact that the camera was Wangethi’s. She also showed her friends the photos the two had taken of the deadly waves as fishermen fled for their dear lives.
After the Malindi sexual escapade, it was Wangethi who approached Helen Mbugua with the proposal to employ Adhiambo. At first, Helen swallowed the hook but she later smelt trouble when one of her colleagues informed her that Kiboro would axe her if he ever found out that she had employed a person who was no qualified through the back door Normally, the CEO is never consulted when the staff at Adhiambo’s level are being hired. But this was a special case. At the time, Wangethi and Helen were so close and Wangathi had been sending some sexual overtones to Helen. So, in order to help Wangethi, Helen called on Kiboro in his office and requested that he bends the employment rules in favour of this woman.
Kiboro, being what he is known, flatly refused to bend the rules in Adhiambo’s favour and waved Helen out of his office. He was categorical that the move would create a bad precedent in NMG. He argued the other journalists were bound to complain why the management had employed a young and inexperienced girl with dubious academic qualifications to such a big post. Kiboro had sensed trouble. When Helen informed Wangethi what had happened, he was stung. He and Odindo then put their heads together and they jointly approached Kiboro. They told Kiboro that they wanted Adhiambo to get the job since she had “special and unmatched skills”. Unknown to Kiboro, the so-called special skills were not the brains Adhiambo had, but her sexual performance and prowess was unmatched. Kiboro and Wangethi were very close and this changed the CEO’s mind.
Wangethi and Odindo had separately promised Adhiambo the job in exchange of sexual favours and they were scared the woman could expose their secret affairs if they did not deliver their part of the bargain. By the time Adhiambo was being employed, a love affair was unfolding between Helen Mbugua and Wangethi. Helen was later to learn why Wangethi was desperately pushing for Adhiambo’s employment. This put a major dent in the relationship between Helen and Wangethi and it has remained cold since then.
Once she had landed on the job she had yearned for, Adhiambo was faced with another gigantic hurdle. Zipporah, who had been demoted but retained in Buzz so that she could remain the engine of her inexperienced boss, refused to do the job and resigned in huff. This left Adhiambo badly terrified since she feared that her weaknesses was soon going to be exposed. The scheme by Wangethi and Odindo was that Zipporah should do all the donkey work and shield the weaknesses of their lover.Up to this day, Adhiambo’s writing is a classic example of illiteracy. She can’t write a readable story and primary school kids pen better compositions than what this woman writes for publication in the newspaper with the widest circulation in East and Central African region. Thanks God we have sub-editors who clean the stories and readers out there think the polished stories are penned by the writer. Being an editor of the magazine, Adhiambo can’t edit a story of perform the job of doing the layout. The job is done by correspondents who work below her. And mark you, the correspondents are not paid for the editing work. They are paid by the number of stories they write. So, that leaves Adhiambo with a lot of free time to display her body in the newsroom.
In order to survive, Adhiambo has been seducing any incoming Managing Editor of Sunday Nation. The first in line were Bernard Nderitu, who was then in charge of the SN, and Mbogo Murage (Wangethi’s best friend who was axed in the recent retrenchment). She extends sexual favours to these editors to trap them and ensure they did not expose her weaknesses. The woes facing Adhiambo were far from over when Nderitu was suddenly transferred to the Daily Nation in similar capacity and in came the soft-spoken Macharia Gaitho. Mbogo has also fallen out of favour with Wangethi when he learnt they were both sharing this girl.
He too was sidelined from the influential post he had and he was appointed one of the four production editors. Adhiambo briefly turned to Eric Obino, who was then the Production Editor for SN. Due to Obino’s unmatched pride in the newsroom, he quickly discarded Adhiambo after sleeping with her several times. Just like his friends, Wangethi and Odindo, Obino has a gift of laying NMG female staff, married women notwithstanding. Obino was the hanger Adhiambo hinged on during Gaitho’s brief tenure in SN. To his credit, Gaitho turns cold when faced with a skirt. Adhiambo’s desperation rose to a fever pitch high when her attempts to lure Gaitho were met by a blink wall. Emails and SMS text messages could not wake up Gaitho’s sex appetite. Tired of being ignored, Adhiambo decided to seize the opportunity when a group of Sunday Nation reporters and editors went out for their monthly nyama choma eating outings in the outskirts of
Nairobi.
She would deliberately turn up in very provocative clothes and sit next to the bearded Gaitho. But Gaitho remained unmoved. She then refused to take lifts on the way home (sometimes in the dead of the night) from other colleagues and insisted on being dropped by Gaitho. To add her woes, Gaitho would pack his car with other journalists and ensure Adhiambo was the first to be dropped. Frustrated at having failed to bag Gaitho, Adhiambo would call Gaitho very early in the morning on the day of the outing and ask him to pick him up at her house. But Gaitho would refuse or turn up with other journalists. At one time, Gaitho turned up at the goat eating sessions in Ngong accompanied by his wife, purposely to frustrate and put off Adhiambo.
Adhiambo rejoiced openly in the newsroom when Gaitho was suddenly and mysteriously moved from the SN and given a less glamorous post of the Managing Editor for Special Projects and Investigations. And in came Mutuma Mathiu, one of the youngest journalists to rise rapidly to the posts of Group Managing Editor and whose sex liaisons with female journalists could only rival Wangethi and retrenched Makau Niko. Mutuma’s list is long. Just to mention a few; Rhoda Orengo (Editor Saturday Magazine), the recently married Liz Gitonga (Editor Young Nation, in Mutuma’s SN), a host of female reporters and interns. Mutuma is married to Alice Kararu, who is a former girlfriend of Makau Niko, and a number of politicians and journalists. Those who were with Kararu at the Kenya Institute of Mass and Communication say she was so generous and anyone, including college watchmen, who required to relieve sexual appetite did not need to prod her before she jumped to bed.
Mutuma had promised marry Liz Gitonga but he had en eye for sex only. The two had a nasty exchange when Liz discovered that Mutuma was also having an affair with Rhoda. At the time, Rhoda was Liz’s boss and she turned her fury on Liz by refusing to use her stories. To cool Liz, Mutuma sweet-talked his friend Wangethi and he gave her her current job of the Editor of Young Nation. Odindo sees Mutuma as a major threat for its rumoured that it was just a matter of time that Wangethi dumped Odindo and gave his job to the young and energetic Mutuma. Although Mutuma, just like Wangethi, slips into any available opening beneath the skirt without any discrimination, he initially rebuffed Adhiambo’s attempts to seduce him. To frustrate her, he declined to sign her forged and fictitious allowances claims. Using the power of the skirt, she presented them to Odindo who promptly signed. Odindo had to sweet-talk Mutuma into signing the claims when the accounts department queried why Adhiambo overlooked her immediate boss Mutuma and went to Odindo.
Through the persistence of Adhiambo, Mutuma finally cracked when he laid her for the first time late last year. For now, Adhiambo’s worries for men to protect her are gone. Her current threat is the spotlight she has been given by the way we have exposed her. Her friends who spoke to our research team in confidence say she is nor worried and that is why she smiled so boldly on Feb1, during a staff meeting that saw Wangethi shedding crocodile tears as he narrated how his wife had confronted him over the sex scandal. They say she has threatened to spill the beans if NMG management dares touch her. She has separately met Odindo and Wangethi told them on the face that any attempt to fire her would sound the death of their prestigious careers.
Zipporah’s recent return to
Kenya after the completion of her studies has badly shaken Wangethi and Odindo. When we first wrote to Linus in November, the two men panicked and they feared that they had been exposed by Zipporah. We understand they frantically went looking for her when she returned and they have offered her a plum job – to silence her. You can’t imagine these two men are now begging her and the arrogance they displayed to her, forcing her to resign from her previous job. Adhiambo has been laid by at least six reporters and one watchman based at Nation Centre. However, we spare the reporters and the poor watchman the embarrassment. But if we will name them if asked to do so.
The Editorial Dept started to decay when Odindo stepped in due to Wangethi’s aloofness and created his own parallel powerbase. Even Stephen Muiruri, who is now shouting loudest about the injustices of NMG managers, was a beneficiary of Odindo. Muiruri says it so clearly in the lengthy letters he wrote and circulated recently. Odindo filled key positions in the newsroom with his tribesmen and women and women he had slept with. He cleverly rewarded non-Kikuyus like Muiruri, Bernard Nderitu (Odindo doesn’t hide his dislike and contempt for this man), Njeri Rugene, Peter Wangai, just to cover up his tracks and please the Kikuyu mafia that run NMG.
It was shocking to read Muiruri’s letters crying wolf yet he was the benefiaciary of Odindo’s plans to reward his fellow Luos. Lucy Oriang (who has a child with Odindo) and Rhoda Orengo (both girlfriends of Odindo) have been major beneficiaries. Just like Oriang, the names of David Aduda and Owino Opondo appear in every new list of promotions. Opondo’s post of Parliamentary Editor was crafted for him by Odindo and it’s just an empty shell which gives him an avenue to rake in a huge salary for doing nothing. Where is the wisdom of having the posts of Parliamentary Editor and Political Editor? Don’t they duplicate roles?
Our pleas to Linus to do away with the multiple posts of editors which duplicate roles have fallen on deaf ears. The posts were purposely created to reward girlfriends, friends and sycophants of both Odindo and Wangethi. Odindo influenced the employment of his long-time girlfriend Mildred Ngesa, after she decamped from the Standard in a huff when she got wind of intentions to fire her for non-performance. Although she is on a high salary at Nation, compared to those of us she found here and who generate many stories, there is nothing to show for the duration she has been at Nation Centre. In some months, you’ll find she has only written one story and in her best months four stories. Or did she too have “special and unmatched skills” like Adhiambo, Joe?
Is it then a wonder that Buzz only publishes sex stuff and corrupts the minds of our children? Is Adhiambo fit to be the role model of your children, Kenyans?
Wangethi’s other affairs in NMGHis love affairs with Irene Karanja (his former secretary), Veronica Kinyanjui (former Features Editor), Linda Gacheru (a junior staff who rose through the ranks rapidly and ended up in a plum job the HR Dept), Wahu (formerly of Advertising Dept), Njeri Mwangi (formerly a reporter of Editorial Dept), and Claire Gatheru (a reporter who was axed in the recent retrenchment) are not any secret to staff who have worked with Wanagethi for a long time. Both Veronica and Wahu had sons with Wangethi. Wangethi panicked when Wahu died of Aids complications a few years ago.
Through the instigation of Wangethi, feature writer Wambugu was shown the door by former Managing Editor of the Daily Nation, Mr Tom Mshindi, after he discovered that Wambugu and Veronica were having an affair. When Wangethi was the Group Managing Editor, his office was on thrird floor at the corner where Bernard Ndiritu has an office and it overlooked the features desk. He often left his office door open to have a glimpse of the goings on at the features desk. He became so uncomfortable when he saw Wambugu sitting close to Veronica. It was a known fact that Veronica had a soft spot for Wambugu. In fact, one day Wangethi went to visit Veronica at her house in Dagoretti and by bad luck, Wambugu was in bed with Veronica. When Wangethi knocked and Veronica drew the curtain and say who the visitor was, Wambugu had no alternative but to slip under the bed. Wambugu had to endure the agony of being under the bed for hours as Wangethi took over from where he had left. Wambugu only emerged from his hideout after Wangethi had finished his mission and left.
It was a close shave for both Veronica and Wambugu, who were both juniors of Wangethi. The story has been told by Wambugu so many times that it’s like his national anthem. But he takes pride in that he led the way and his boss followed in the same hole! Veronica ended up being married to Wangethi’s buddy Mbatau Wangai. Wangethi’s love affairs with mothers and their daughtersThis is something that is bound to shock Wangethi’s wife and those who know the man.Wangethi had for a long time had an affair with seasoned journalist Esther Kamweru, who is currently the founding and Executive Director of the Media Council of Kenya. As the two continued seeing each other, Wangethi came to know Esther’s daughter (the girl’s identity is withheld), whom he seduced and took to bed.
The mother was so furious when he discovered what Wangethi was doing behind her back and she terminated her own relationship with the man.The same things happened when he was having an affair with Irene Karanja, his secretary for many years. Wangethi turned to her only daughter and the affair (with daughter) went on until Irene retired from NMG. Wangethi was pushing so hard for the daughter to replace her mother at Nation. When that failed, Irene’s daughter brought their family friend, Angela Gacheru. She was not in Nation for long before Wangethi worked his sex magic and took her to bed. Angela later left Nation after she hooked up with a Briton and went to
London. If the carpet and the walls of Wagethi’s office could speak, the story of Claire Gatheru would be one of the most fascinating one. In her own account, Claire narrated to her friends in the newsroom how Wangethi laid her on the carpet until she strained her back.
Her story has some similarities to that of Adhiambo. Although she has impressive academic credentials (a KU degree, a diploma in journalism and a Masters degree), her stories were worse off than a composition for an average Standard Four pupil. However, she found her way to Nation through Kiboro, after he had been approached by his friend Erastus Mureithi, then the managing director of the Co-operative Bank. Mureithi and Kiboro are related by the marriage of their children. Interviews with former KU year-mates of Claire and lecturers revealed that she earned her degrees by lowering her pants. Any student at the campus could lay her without dropping a sweat in seducing her. She could hardly write a readable story and most sub-editors took the earliest flight to the toilet to avoid being allocated a story done by her. But she well understood her predicament and she resorted to seducing and sleeping with any editor who could influence the publication of her story.
When she arrived in Nation Centre, Obino was the deputy chief sub and he opened the door for many of his colleagues. Their affair ensured that Obino cleaned her stories and gave her a by-line. Next was Wainaina Kiganya, who was sitting at the subs-desk. His affair with Claire saw the publication of her stories. Wangethi and Bernard Nderitu followed suit. In her own words (she has a loose mouth the same way her legs little provocation to part), she seduced Wangethi and Nderitu to ensure she was not sacked for her sloppy copy and poor performance.
She started seducing Nderitu during a staff party for the staff two years ago. Nation had attracted very bad publicity when Claire was a court reporter. She slept with anyone who could part with a fat bribe; court clerks, lawyers, magistrates and judges fell victim to her sexual manourvers. Claire was also notorious for taking bribes in the courts to kill a story or influence the publication of a story she had interest in. That is why both Wangethi and Nderitu had to be trapped so that her stories would see the light of the day. Court reporters interviewed by our research team said there was a day serious allegations about graft were leveled against Claire. She had been given money by lawyers of one party over a matter that was before court so that she could kill the story. To the shock of the other court reporters, all of them were summoned to Wangethi’s office and quizzed about the bribe allegations. And it was so clear that the allegations had been leveled against Claire Gatheru and not a whole mob of court reporters.
Rather than Wangethi face Claire in the face and demand an explanation from her, he made a general condemnation and kept skirting around Claire. He was afraid the woman could reveal the secrets she had kept in her legs. Wangethi and the other editors shared Claire with reporters. But let’s spare the reporters for now. Dennis AluangaThis man, who is the brainchild of the current retrenchment at NMG, is right at the centre of the mess bedeviling the Editorial Dept. Using his influential position as the CEO’s defacto deputy, Aluanga has continued to starve the Editorial Dept of the much-needed cash to allow it to operate independently. He personally influenced the slashing of the Editorial budget.
He does not understand the pain we undergo or the pain of raising a family of your own. The man is 40 plus and still a bachelor. He preys on other people’s wives and young female staff who fear losing their jobs. Rahab’s (secretary to Atebe) case is a classic example of how Aluanga has ruined happy marriages. Rahab was ditched by her husband due to her affair with Aluanga. Her children have been denied the comfort of a father because of her own sins. Cleaners got a rude shock when they one day when they accidentally stumbled on Aluanga making love to Rahab on the carpet of his office. Those guys, though they were doing their official duties, luckily survived the sack. Aluanga’s other girlfriend is Frida, the girl who was recently promoted from the cash office on ground floor to the shares section on 4th floor. Aluanga played a key role in her promotion. There is a woman who resigned from the accounts section after she was raped by Aluanga in his office and she is so traumatized up to this day. We’ll not name her since we don’t want to add more trauma in her life. But the details of the sexual attack is well known on 5th floor.
Ken Kaunda, the person who lasted in the post of Human Resources Director for the shortest period, was hurriedly shown the door by Kiboro when the CEO went to Kaunda’s office and accidentally bumped into him deeply engrossed in kissing with a secretary he had brought with him to Nation Centre. To save Kaunda from embarassment, Kiboro issued an urgent circular in all the notice boards announcing the “sudden departure” of Ken. And Joe Adongo, the first person to occupy the newly-created post of MD for Nation Newspapers found the door as first as he had come when a five-star hotel in the vicinity of Nation Centre swung a bill of more than Sh300,000 to NMG for room charges incurred by Joe while “entertaining” different girls.
He had asked the hotel to send the bill as for entertainment! But the question on everyone’s lips in Nation Centre is why some managers are untouchable when faced with sex scandals. Why were Adongo and Ken hurriedly shown the door? Kiboro is himself no angel. His affairs with Wangui Muchiri, former NTV reporter and now CEO of NCBDA, and Fatuma Hirsi Mohamed, NMG’s Group Corporate Affairs Manager, are no secret. And what about Nuri, a driver who was promoted to a senior position and given an office job near Wangethi’s office? Her fellow drivers say Kiboro slept with her when she temporarily became his driver and he ordered the HR Dept to promote her. Never mind Nuri is married. At one time Fatuma, Wangui Muchiri and other woman who was working as Kiboro’s PA and was based on fifth floor almost fought, each of them being furious that their territory had been invaded.
But the Kikuyu mafia in Nation Centre knows how to cover one of their own and only staff from other tribes are forced to resign when faced with sex scandals. Odindo survived being sacrificed because of the wide publicity this matter has been given.
The most shocking things about Aluanga is that he displays a lot of contempt and hatred for his elderly parents. Being a bachelor, he lives in one roomed rented house and he says his parents would only be allowed into his office after they had been disinfected and de-wormed! This guy can make you sick. Why are NMG bosses so sex hungry?Wangethi and Odindo have created so many posts that duplicate roles and the occupiers of these offices have a lot of idle time. To pass time, they either sceme on the women to lay and sleep and snore in their offices. Have we spoken the truth Odindo? Don’t you sleep and snore loudly in your office disturbing our peace as we are trying to generate your hefty salary?
Wangethi and Odindo are responsible for creating so many posts which duplicate roles to reward their friends and girlfriends. In our previous letters, we have listed the posts that need to be merged or scrapped but this has fallen on deaf ears. We have a whole battalion of people walking around the newsroom carrying titles of editors and they have nothing to show for it. A big chunk of the budget for the Editorial Dept goes to paying heft salaries for the idle editors. It’s immoral to pay one idle editor Sh400,000 each month and pay a reporter who toils like slave Sh60,000. All the top editors and managers earn salaries of between Sh500,000 and Sh1million plus each month.For instance, where is the wisdom of having the posts of Editorial Director and Group Managing Editor? And what about the numerous posts of Managing Editors? And yet still, the countless posts of editors? No wonder Wangethi has a lot of time to lift skirts, play golf during morning working hours and entertain his friends in beer sessions in his office in the afternoon. And Odindo is often falling asleep in his office in the afternoon due to boredom. And this happens when majority of hardworking journalists are toiling so hard to generate the hefty salaries and perks for the bored and idle editors.
It was also shocking to hear you and the other managers making a mockery about our degrees. This is what added more fuel into our resolve to expose the rot in Nation. You, too, will not be spared. Where else doe we have Form Six editors in the newsroom apart from NMG? How can correspondents and reporters who are university graduates, some with first degrees and others with Masters degrees, continue reporting to Form Six drop outs who are incompetent?
It’s the policy of NMG that reporters and correspondents should have a minimum qualification of a university degree. Why is the rule an exception to some of the editors? Linus, you have no option but to respect our academic qualifications. Form Six and Form Four editors must leave our newsroom if you want peace.Union
It was ridiculous to hear managers on February 1 denying they had not played any role in killing the journalists union. There is no doubt that NMG leadership played a big role in the death of the union and this started when new journalists were denied a chance to join KUJ.
This weakened the union since members who leave are not replaced. Salaries for our members have not been reviewed for the past three years. Yet, the management staff gets heft pay rise every January. We demand the immediate review of our salaries. Flimsy excuses wont wash. There are serious attempts going on currently as Linus and Helen desperately try to reach KUJ officials to bribe the so that they can stop the crusade of championing the rights of the hard-working journalists. This wont work.Correspondents
About 75 percent of the content published in all NMG publications is the work of correspondents, casual workers who are paid peanuts for the sweat of their labour. Though NMG prides itself as the champion of human rights and publishes stories on how other companies oppress their employees, the opposite happens in NMG.
Correspondents are today’s modern slaves. Although they toil so hard, they end up being paid peanuts and most of them live in abject poverty and die in misery. This lot is paid by the length of the stories they write. But the mode of calculation is top secret by the NMG leadership to ensure a huge chunk is taken away from the poor correspondents to take care of the hefty salaries of their bosses. That is one way the Editorial bosses manage to live within the department’s budget. We demand better pay. Most correspondents remain unemployed during their entire careers.It’s a miracle for the correspondents, especially those in the rural areas to earn Sh5,000 a month.Isn’t it immoral for editors and a group of well connected staff to go smiling all bank and the poor and voiceless correspondents can’t have a decent livingWe demand a complete overhaulof the entire Editorial Dept. Idle bosses and all those tainted with corruption must be sent packing. We need a transparent criteria of employment, promotions and sharing of training opportunities. There will never be any peace in Nation Centre until these demands are met. We are tired of selling our blood for peanuts.
The spouses of all the people implicated in the sex scandal will soon be hearing from us. The red flag has been raised. Be on the look out. Coming soon: PART TWO of the sex scandal
• The untold sex life of Linus Wang’ombe Gitahi
• Why Irene Karanja’s husband committed suicide and the role Wangethi Mwangi played.
• The famous story of Wangethi Mwangi and Linda Gatheru. Why did a frightened Wangethi jump out of her Buru Buru house at night as be zipped his trouser?
• Wangethi Mwangi’s attempt to rape court reporter Njeri Mwangi and how the case poses a grave danger to his marriage and career.
• The day Ken Oluoch saved Wangethi Mwangi’s skin from an angry bridegroom on the wedding day after the husband-to-be discovered the NMG boss was having an affair with the woman he was just about to vows in church.
• Why Ken Oluoch saved Wangethi Mwangi and the similar tales of their office carpets.
• The shocking sex life of the Bull of Nation, Cyrille Nabutola, Group Marketing Director. Why do most of the sales executives on 2nd floor have children (BOYS ONLY) who closely resemble each other? Why can’t NMG bosses take action against him even after being found making love to women in his office?
• The shocking love affair between Mrs Helen Mbugua and the KBC MD David Waweru. Why has this woman gone so cold and taken cover of late? Find out why.
Read these and more stories in the next issue. You can’t afford to miss it. It’ll be hot and explosive. In the PART THREE, we will table all the evidence that we have gathered. This will be the most painful part for the NMG sex maniacs. We are praying they will still be in office by then so that can enjoy the stuff with the rest of us. Mambo bado. Hii ni kiojo tu!