Royal Media Services Digital Content Manager Mercy Oburu has been recalled barely a week after she was retrenched alongside more than 100 other employees. Mercy, who has been a long-serving employee at Royal Media, reported back to work Wednesday this week.
Insiders say she was recalled after the intervention of Royal Media Services founder and chairman S.K. Macharia. Others who were sacked include TerryAnne Chebet, Kirigo Ng’arua and Abdi Osman.
Some insiders at Citizen TV speculated that the company may have found it ‘too expensive’ to sack her having worked for the media house for many years. But Business Today is made to understand that Mercy, a former Editor in Chief at Royal Media, is a cancer survivor and SK Macharia could have, perhaps, noticed the irony of offloading her especially during the cancer awareness month of October. Mercy, who bravely battled breast cancer, is a director of the Africa Cancer Foundation.
Mercy holds an MBA in Strategic Management from Moi University and Bachelor’s degree from Daystar University. She previously worked in various capacities at the Kenya Television Network (KTN). Mercy is also trained in Women in Management, investigative reporting, and creative thinking and problem solving.
SK Macharia is known to be very compassionate when it comes to the welfare of his employees. During the burial of veteran journalist Waweru Mburu, he announced that his widow, who is not an employee, will continue to earning her late husband’s salary for one year with the possibility of extending the magnanimity.
In announcing the decision to rationalise operations at Royal Media Services, Managing Director Wachira Waruru said developments in the broadcasting industry in the past two years adversely affected our business environment prompting the company to re-organise its operations. “Unfortunately and regrettably, the action will result in the reduction of our workforce through job redundancies,” he said in a memo to staff.
While Mercy had not spoken about her sacking, several of her colleagues have reacted with many declaring they will continue going strong.
“I’ve been told before never to share my sorrows because people will laugh and poke at my misfortunes. But I’ve learnt that vulnerability isn’t a weakness. If I only post pictures of happy fabulous days, it will be pretentious to you and to myself. That’s not who I am,” says Terryanne Chebet, who was offloaded from the business desk at Citizen TV. “Allow me to share my journey with you, in both good and bad times. It will help me bounce back, and hopefully uplift someone else going through the same thing. Deal? Off to build the nation.”
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