KBC relaunched its operations recently, which involved a rebrand and brought on what it called legends as it seeks to boost viewership for TV and internship for its radio stations. According to a report on KBC website, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation has tapped new talent, including a team of so-called legends who dominated the media landscape for years.
Among the new faces on KBC Channel 1 TV are Catherine Kasavuli, Tom Mboya, Cynthia Nyamai, Shiksha Arora, John Kioria Fred Indimuli, Juma Ballo, Harith Salim and Nancy Onyancha. All of them have worked for different TV stations. Others are Fayyaz Qureishi formerly at KTN, former KBC insiders Badi Muhsin and Pauline Sheghu.
The news was published on KBC website and picked by a number of websites in Kenya, which reported that KBC had employed the former TV presenters.
BusinessToday has fact-checked and found that the presenters have actually been brought back as “performing artists/talents”. This is a euphemism for casual employees. According to KBC Editor-in-Chief Samuel Maina, performing artists are paid only for what they do. “They are not on the corporation payroll and thus don’t enjoy things like medical cover and other benefits,” he says.
He said the ‘legends’ have been brought in to only present news and conduct interviews in their specific segments. For instance, Catherine Kasavuli’s focus is specifically presenting weekend edition branded as Legends Edition, while Tom Mboya and Cynthia Nyamayi will be anchoring prime time news during the week.
“The Legends is only on Saturday at 7pm and 9pm. The market has been yearning for these anchors. The Corporation decided to give them an opportunity to deliver our product to Kenyans. They are also very experienced and will also be training our upcoming anchors to sharpen their anchoring skills,” Mr Maina said.
[This story was produced by Business Today in partnership with Code for Africa’s iLAB data journalism programme, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie ]
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