Nation Media Group has lost a newspaper reporter to Nyamira County Government, as journalists across the industry find the lure of life outside mainstream media hard to resist.
Samwel Born Maina, who was a staff writer on the Nation newspaper’s investigations desk, left this month to take up a new appointment as the county director of communications. At 29 years, he is arguably the youngest person to hold the position of director of communication in charge of the governor’s press in the county government system.
Mr Maina, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from Masinde Muliro University, joined Nation Media Group in early 2013 as a correspondent for the Nairobi News newspaper. He was transferred to Daily Nation as investigative reporter after Nairobi News print edition was shut.
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In his short stint in the newsroom, he won Media Council of Kenya journalism awards in health reporting. This year he was second runners up in this category.Colleagues at Nation centre describe him as “aggresive but friendly” and he is understood to have made a huge network of buddies by the time he left.
Mr Maina is up against the huge task of restoring the image of Nyamira County and raising the profile of Governor John Nyagarama ahead of the next elections. “This is progress in terms of career growth,” he said, speaking on phone from Nyamira town. “NMG will always be close to my heart. They gave me a platform that accelerated my growth and for that I am very grateful. I thank the editors and other staff for the support and guidance they gave me during my tenure there and hope to come back again.”
Before joining NMG, Mr Maina was a freelance journalist for Nairobi Law Monthly and Nairobi Business Monthly, both owned by city lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, before moving to K24 as an online journalist.
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