Two former K24 reporters laid off in last year’s restructuring have joined KTN. Duncan Khaemba and Chris Thairu joined Kenya’s first private television station early this week and were unveiled officially yesterday.
They spent Monday and Tuesday undergoing orientation at the Mombasa Road offices and I&M Bank newsroom in the city centre. The two were poached by K24 in December 2012 as it rebranded to make a big mark in the industry, only to be dropped Mediamax restructuring late last year after the rebrand failed.
KTN Managing Editor Joe Ageyo used his Twitter page to break the news, and threw in a hint of what they should expect. “Excited to welcome Chris Thairu and Duncan Khaemba to the KTNNews team! Hapa kazi tu (Here it’s just work,” he said.
Indeed KTN, and the entire Standard Group, is still coming to terms with last year’s retrenchment which left a near-skeleton staff. This has meant heavier workload for those who were retained in a model that seeks to get more work done from less hands and mouths. It certainly needs more people like Khaemba, who reports in both Kiswahili and English.
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The situation was made worse by the recent exit of four journalists – Sam Ogina and Mercy Kandie from the news desk and business editor Michael Karanja – to Citizen TV. Adelaide Changole, who was a business reporter, was taken up by Bloomberg after completing the international media house’s sponsored training.
Recently, Standard Group CEO Sam Shollei met KTN staff after the exits and sought to assuage their fears. He is said to have promised the journalist a pay increase soon. In a competitive market, most KTN journalists have been left to salivate at the juicy figures their former colleagues blow after being poached by rival stations. “We are always watching out for something better,” said a KTN journalist. “The pay and work environment here are very discouraging.”
The management will have to move swiftly to effect a pay rise and possibly shake-up the KTN editorial management, which is accused of killing reporters’ morale and forcing some out by suppressing budgets and favouring some.
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