Hussein Mohamed: ‘Despised’ At Citizen TV, Honoured At State House

Former Citizen TV news anchor Hussein Mohamed has been appointed State House Spokesperson.

Hussein takes the place of former colleague Kanze Dena-Mararo, and will work with David Mugonyi who has been appointed Head of the Presidential Communication Service.

On Monday, January 24, 2022, Mohamed was appointed Head of Communications for Deputy President William Ruto’s presidential campaign.

Considered as one of Kenya’s most respected TV anchors, Hussein was pushed out of Citizen TV in October 2019, partly by some of his colleagues, after a bitter fallout.

Hussein maintained a low profile away from the public limelight since he left his plum job at Citizen TV in October 2019 until January when he was appointed to Ruto’s team.

At that time, Royal Media Services (RMS) had gone on a poaching spree in a bid to create what was termed the “Dream Team”.

In the multimillion hiring spree, the media house found itself in a storm involving the ‘old’ and ‘new’ teams of employees.

In new employees’ camp were journalists who joined Royal Media Services between March and July 2018, comprising Editorial Director Joe Ageyo (from KTN), Strategy Director Linus Kaikai (from NTV), Yvonne Okwara (news anchor, from KTN) as well as a host of other journalists including Jamila Mohammed, Pamela Asigi, Rashid Abdallah and Nimrod Taabu (all from NTV), among others.

The old camp had journalists who had been working for RMS before 2018. Prominent in this group are Jeff Koinange, Lillian Muli, Willis Raburu, Waihiga Mwaura, Francis Gachuri, and Hussein Mohammed.

The new team was awarded hefty salaries, almost doubling what the old team was earning in the media house. This irked the Mohamed team, to an extent of pushing some out, including Mohamed.

In his final words at Citizen TV, Mohamed deliberately refused to acknowledge his ‘new bosses’, including Ageyo and Kaikai.

“I appreciate the support and guidance of RMS Chair S.K. Macharia and Vice-Chair Gathoni Macharia, the managing director Wachira Waruru, the management, the Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney who was our boss here a while back,” Hussein said.

After Hussein, several big names were pushed out including Dorcas Wangira, Saida Swaleh, Makori Ongechi, and Asha Mwilu among others.

In March 2022, Joe Ageyo, who served as editorial director at Royal Media Services, left the media house.

Read: Will Hussein Mohamed Take Up Dennis Itumbi’s Job In Ruto Camp?

>>> Fallout at Citizen TV that Pushed Out Hussein Mohammed