KTN Kiswahili news anchor Mwanaisha Chidzuga has become the latest victim of Standard Group’s massive retrenchment.
Sources at Standard centre on Mombasa road say it was a rude shock when Mwanaisha, a soft-spoken lady who smiles effortlessly, was called from the studio as she prepared for the afternoon Maisha na Isha show she hosts on KTN2 to be given her redundancy letter. “The show was cancelled,” said the person who saw the letter delivered in a white enveloped branded with Standard logo. “That’s so so bad. She didn’t say anything. She just walked off to her desk.”
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Ms Chidzuga application for voluntary early retirement is said to have been rejected, only for Standard to turn around and sack her. The company’s strategy has been to disengage employees in the cheapest way possible and giving her retirement would have cost the company more in terms of terminal benefits.
The newscaster is said to have been pondering an early retirement from the screen since the beginning of the year to concentrate on her hospitality business. Ms Chidzuga runs restaurants at Nairobi’s Sameer Business Park and in South C and the brand Aryannas.
Standard is targeting to sack 90 journalists from the newsroom and more employees from other departments to cut its workforce by 30%. So far about 30 journalists have received their letters, majority of whom poached from other media houses three years ago. This comes even as the media house expands its platforms, with the recent launch of KTN2.
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