The ongoing restructuring at Nation Media Group has claimed more people than initially thought. The names of some of the people who have left Nation have emerged including senior editors and reporters as well as celebrated Kiswahili author and news anchor Ken Walibora Waliaula.
From the list, it’s not easy to tell the criteria used to edge out the journalists after consolidating editorial management of the newspapers.
Besides news editor Eric Shimoli and counties editor Sammy Wambua, the company has also offloaded opinion and editorial (oped) editor Mary Wasike, sub-editors Pamela Wanambisi of Sports, Felista Wangari of Saturday Magazine, Esther Karuru of Sunday Nation,Victor Siele of taifa Leo as well as reporters Zadock Angira (crime), Waga Odongo and Zimbabwean journalist Farayi Nyandoro.
This list does not, however, include the eight unionisable journalists who are waiting for court decision on a case filed by the Kenya Union of Journalists seeking better compensation.
Dr Walibora was group head of quality and standards for Swahili products such as Taifa Leo newspaper and defunct QTV and QFM. He ran a programme and could anchor occasionally because of his voice and skills. The demise of QTV made his stay untenable although his roles went as far as Tanzania.
SEE ALSO >> How Nation overhauled its editorial team
He has become one of the most prolific Kenyan authors, with 40 titles to his name. Arguably the most famous of these are Ndoto ya Amerika and Siku Njema, which was a secondary school set book between 1997 and 2003. One of his other books, Kidagaa Kimemwozea has also been a set book since 2013.
Although he is well known for the years he worked as a Kiswahili news reader at NTV, Dr Walibora has become a household name across the country as much for his TV work as for his books.
Focus has now turned to TV and ICT departments where more employees are expected to be fired today.
[crp]
Leave a comment