Former Citizen TV investigative journalist Purity Mwambia has revealed that she has been going through financial turmoil since she went into exile in the United States of America.
In a recent interview, the journo alleged that she had been abandoned by the organisation that had taken her to the US.
“I was brought here by an organisation and they abandoned me. They left me, I’m on the verge of homelessness because I don’t know what to do next,” she said.
“Every day when I walk past all these metro buses and I see these homeless people. It’s one of those stories I would have loved to tell as a journalist, but now I walk as if I’m literally in their shoes, not knowing what’s going to happen to me.”
Mwambia fled the country in 2021 following death threats after the ‘Guns Galore’ exposé, which revealed how rogue police officers hire out guns and police uniforms to criminal gangs.
The Citizen TV exposé showed criminals confessing to obtaining weapons, police uniforms, handcuffs, and vests from officers in order to commit crimes.
The exposé, which took over a year to put together, drew the ire of Kenyans and human rights lobby groups, who demanded that the claims be urgently investigated.
Mwambia on May 30, 2023, appeared at a conference organised by the United States Department of State to discuss the unique challenges faced by women in the news industry.
For the two years she has been in exile, Mwambia says she has been able to do only one story for the US media.
“It’s hard to navigate the US media landscape, especially for global journalists. It’s so hard. I’ve been here for two years and I’ve only been able to do one story with one of the local companies,” she said.
“My challenges are not very different from other investigative journalists in exile. First of all, when you come here from your country where you’ve done big stories, you’ve quoted all these people who are doing some corruption, big shots in the government… but believe me, when you come here, it’s like your voice is silenced.”
In what was her first public appearance since 2021, Ms Mwambia was part of a panel discussion hosted by the Bureau of Global Public Affairs.
Read: #Purity Mwambia: When Journalism Clashes With Perceived Human Decency
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