KTN has suffered a major blow after Special Projects Editor John Allan Namu resigned in a huff. Mr Namu, who doubled as a news anchor, tendered his resignation on Wednesday evening.
He is said to have quit due to frustration with Standard Group’s management, which has not been facilitating his work as an investigative journalist. He had lately been reduced to a news anchor, appearing at least a week on prime time news bulletin.
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Also leaving is Kassim Mohamed, the producer of Jicho Pevu, the popular Kiswahili investigative series by Mohamed Ali who works alongside Namu and whose fate also remains uncertain, with sources indicating that he could be on his way out as well. This would effectively kill investigative journalism at Standard Group, after the newspaper division disbanded the investigations desk headed by Machua Koinange.
Generally, Kenyan media houses are averse to funding investigative journalism which often exposes them to litigation and scares advertisers. Recently, Star investigation editor David Okwemba quit under unclear circumstances and Nation’s investigations desk has been having a high turnover of journalists.
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Mr Namu, who won the CNN Multichoice Journalist of the Year Award in 2009, is one of the most respected journalists in Kenya for his investigative prowess. Namu won the award for his stories ‘In the shadow of the Mungiki’ and ‘Inside Story: Scars and Sufurias’.
John-Allan joined Kenya Television Network (KTN) in 2005 where started with formulating story ideas, cover live and regular news events as well as anchor KTN Business and KTN Weekend Prime. He also presented a business programme, Enterprise Kenya.
He was then promoted to Features Co-ordinator on KTN’s bulletins helped in production of the morning show, Sunrise Live. He was capped four times by the Kenya National XV Rugby team in 2004 and 2005. In some point he joined Nation Media Group’s NTV in 2010 but soon returned to KTN after falling out with management.
A person close to Mr Namu says he is venturing into private business to produce TV shows possibly in investigative. His resignation follows that of Ian Wafula, who joined K24 last week.
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