NAIROBI, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012 – Alex Chamwada, the Citizen TV associate editor who was reported to be leaving Royal Media services, says he is there to stay, after all.
In an interview with BUSINESS TODAY this morning Mr Chamwada (pictured, left), one of the best political reporters in Kenya’s TV industry, said the rumour that he had resigned was just that. “It’s not true,” he said categorically. “That’s speculation. I am still with Royal Media services.”
Some reports had indicated that the journalist had changed his mind of moving to join Evans Kidero’s governorship campaign as spin doctor after S. K Macharia, the founder and chairman of Royal Media Services, which runs the station and numerous radio channels, raised his salary to 0.6 million.
In a media industry where most journalists are underpaid, the carrot can be too sweet to turn down, but Mr Chamwada denied being given a salary boost.
“I am happy that you have called to clarify. It was a money of salary issue,” said Mr Chamwada, an information science graduate of Moi University who holds a masters in politics and mass media from Liverpool University, said in a phone interview. “I think people are just picking it from the trend in media. And even the meetings with management I’m hearing them from other people.”
According to reports Mr Chamwada was set to join a campaign team for Mumias CEO Evans Kidero who is seeking to vie for Nairobi governorship, but other sources indicated that the journalist was, in fact, planning to join Internal security minister George Saitoti’s presidential campaign. On his Twitter account he says curtly: “Morning. I am still an employee of Royal Media Services. Thanks.”
It is said moments after Chamwada handed in his resignation, Mr Macharia, his wife, Gathoni, who doubles as group vice-chairman, and Royal Media Services Group CEO Waruru Wachira summoned him and after hours of talks, pledged to double his salary to Ksh600,000.
“He was getting about Ksh350,000 but now he will get Ksh 600,000 a month,” Jackals News, our media news partner, quotes an unnamed a source at Citizen. “I think they had to add him some money, because let’s face it, he is a good reporter and nobody could let him go because we are headed to a turbulent political time and he is needed.”
Mr Chamwada’s exit could have upset the successful Citizen Television and its news manager Farida Karoney, who recently lost news editor Peter Opondo who left for Uganda. In an attempt to fill Opondo’s position, Karoney sought to hire ex-Standard writer Nixon Ng’ang’a, who rejected the offer at the last minute, after his employer, Ahmed Isaack Hassan at the electoral commission prevailed.
Mr Chamwada is held in high esteem in news circles and his reporting is considered sober and literate. His years of experience in news from years at KTN and now Citizen Television put him in a league of prolific journalists. It is not exactly clear why he would want to leave Citizen Television.
A close contact, however, said it was because he was uncomfortable with the salary Janet Mbugua is being paid, yet he was doing most of the ”donkey work.” Mbugua, an average newsreader, is being paid about Ksh 800,000 shillings a month, almost twice what Chamwada is thought to be paid, Jackal News understands.
”I think he asked for a pay review but that came to naught. I think he thought he could not return to KTN or go to any other media house, so I told him join an international channel,” his friend told Jackal News earlier in the day.
For the past three years, Chamwada hold has been Citizen TV’s associate editor, basically in charge of special programmes and features. He previously worked as KTN reporter before rising through the ranks to become politics editor, and later, news editor.
“I’m handling the rumour of moving through facebook and twitter,” he added. “You will be seeing me on TV doing the professional job I have always done for Royal Media Services.”
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