Media icon William Maunda dies of heart attack

NAIROBI, Kenya

Word just in has it that media icon Jacob William Maunda is dead. Jacob who was popularly dubbed as Jawima is said to have died of a heart attack this morning, according to reports by The Kenya Daily Post.

He was a song writer and labelled himself as soloist international. He was 62 years old by the time of his death. In 1989 immediately after graduating with a Diploma in Journalism from the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication through a government scholarship, Maunda left KNA for VoK as a reporter-cum-newscaster for both radio and television.

He retired in 2001 at the age of 50 to concentrate fully on music. Maunda also had a short stint as a lecturer at the KIMC in 2004, before quitting to join Mbaitu FM, a Kamba vernacular radio station. He was to leave the station for yet another Kamba station, Musyi FM – a vernacular radio station of Royal Media Services, as senior news anchor, editor and head of news department.” He claimed that music to him was equal to journalism.

Through music, he was able to communicate to society in the same manner he did as a journalist. (The Kenya Daily Post)