Radio listeners were treated to drama on Friday morning after Capital in the Morning hosts Fareed Khimani and Amina Abdi quarreled on air over their pay packages at the Chris Kirubi owned media house a scuffle which is likely to trigger a debate on gender equity in pay in the Kenyan media industry.
The fuss was triggered by a conversation started by Khimani who asked Amina why she was looking moody to which Amina replied angrily apparently because she had stumbled upon Khimani’s pay cheque only to find out that her male co-presenter rakes in much more money than her despite joining the Chris Kirubi owned media house in June this year.
It is at this juncture that Fareed defended his salary saying that he was more experienced and negotiated for his fat pay cheque based on his skills and ability to deliver.
Amina, who also hosts The Trend on NTV would have none of that and threatened to walk out if Amina did not contain her rant saying that it is not a written rule that they must work together.
What followed next was a hard tackle from Amina who told Fareed ” Si you leave. We will not die without you.”
{Read: Former CNN anchor quit because of too much Trump coverage}
It is at this point that Amina could be heard telling Dj Adrian to play the music bringing the spat to an end.
Listeners who took to social media to comment on the matter were keen to note that despite working together, the two are not cut from the same cloth and are yet to sync and work in tandem like most radio co-hosts.
so Amina should be paid same with someone with great experience from the early 2000's! We knew Fareed from radio years before Amina thought of joining radio. So millennials like you should show Fareed some respect
— sammyImbega (@sammyimbega) July 12, 2019
https://twitter.com/gichurian/status/1149571275540451329
In the past, such antics have later turned out to be bait for more listeners, it remains to be seen if this is another of those tales.
Conversely, this is not the first time that popular media personalities are squabbling about unequal pay.
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It is alleged that popular TV presenter Janet Mbugua left Citizen TV in 2018 after learning that fellow anchor Jeff Koinange earns more than Ksh1 million despite earning 800,000 herself at the time.
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