5 Shocking Ways Kenyan Media Houses Have Fired Journalists

Being fired from your job, especially one that you have called home is what one would never wish on their worst enemy. But nothing is as haunting as being laid off from a media house.

The media industry is a murky world filled with scenarios whereby journalists can be fired anytime, sometimes without warning. Imagine having your stint as a journalist cut when you're finishing publishing a story.

Reports of a series of firings have hit almost every prominent media house over the past two years, with the year 2020 seen as one of the worst for any journalist in the profession in Kenya. Big names, budding journalists and those experienced despite their names not being spoken about have fallen to the axe; no one has been spared.

Viral Tea takes a look at some of the methods media houses have used to fire journalists;

High Turnover

In a Human Resource (HR) context, high turnover refers to the number of workers who leave the organization.

In most cases, these leavers need to be replaced by new employees. Employee turnover often is a result of poor hiring decisions and bad management.

Turnover happens in one of two ways; one, turnover can be voluntary, meaning employees quit their jobs or resign from them or two, turnover can be involuntary, meaning employees are fired.

This has been the case across a number of high-turnover media houses known for initiating mass firings, the latest being Nation Media Group (NMG) which threatened massive job cuts in the Twin Towers after it restructured its managerial sector on Friday, November 4.

Withholding Salaries and Salary Cuts

Arguably the biggest bone of contention in Kenyan media is remittances to its employees. Two years ago, various media houses imposed salary cuts to grapple with an economy being ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, much to the dismay of journalists working there.

The most famous case at the time involved Mediamax Networks which imposed 50 per cent salary cuts in which its journalists were forced to comply or leave. After they refused the pay cuts, the media house fired its entire newsroom and spared just two.

Recently, salary hoarding has hit the Standard Media Group (SMG) since Viral Tea exposed the crisis that began as far back as August when alleged financial constraints saw staff experience delays in receiving their monthly salaries.

"There's no salary, now what to do," the insiders had lamented to Viral Tea.

The media house instead initiated mass firings with some of the journalists even opting to quit in frustration as the identity of those fired since the announcement on Friday, September 30 remains unknown.

SMS

Perhaps one of the crudest ways Kenyan media houses have fired their staff is through a Short Message Service (SMS) text, as it happened with Mediamax networks. This method actually sparked an uproar across the country as the message was eventually exposed on social media.

"Hi. This is (name hidden) from HR. I am contacting you with regards to the redundancy notice issued on the 21st of May 2020. The notice period has expired. Unfortunately, your position has been affected by way of redundancy.

"I would like to invite you to Emory Hotel in Kileleshwa tomorrow, Monday 22, at 8:55 a.m. to discuss what this means to your employment. When you get to the hotel kindly ask for me. We thank you for your indulgence and cooperation in this matter," reads the message that was sent out on Sunday, June 21 by Maureen Wandera, the HR of the company then.

Among the popular names affected by the mass action include Rose Gakuo, Fred Indimuli, Eric Njoka, Sam Njoroge, Karen Karimi, Isabella Kituri, Nancy Onyancha, Caren Kibbett, Shon Osimbo, Sara Adams, Joy Kariuki, Joab Mwaura and Tony Khwalanda.

Politics

As Kenyan media has been known for its coverage of politics, some media houses have based political affiliations as the reason for getting rid of journalists at will.

During the 2022 election season, some media houses directed their journalists who want to vie for political seats to step aside, but some have swung the axe on those whose political interests do not align with that of their employers.

Some have been dismissed for booking political guests from rival camps while others were shown the door over critical coverage of certain political leaders.

Some of the prominent names include Peter Opondo from Standard Media, Njogu wa Njoroge from Kameme FM, Dennis Galava from NMG, Chacha Mwita from SMG among others.

For Galava's case, he moved to sue the media house for Ksh250 million after a critical op-ed saw him corner former President Uhuru Kenyatta directly over how his government had responded to national crises in 2015. He was accused of flouting editorial policies before publishing his piece and his contract was terminated immediately.

Social Media

In the era of digitization, being fired over social media sagas not only breaks your spirit but turns you into a punching bag of criticism and a laughing stock all at once, especially if you are a famous brand.

These days, one has to be wary of posts on social media or utterances over a mainstream platform. One slip of the tongue will have Kenyans On Twitter (KOT) slamming you for several days and arm-twisting media management to take action.

This was the case for Shaffie Weru, whose remarks on Homeboyz Radio were termed gender insensitive and saw him heavily criticised, terminated by Radio Africa Group and punished severely by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

“The reason I was fired you need to understand was never about the tweets or the people, it was about the companies that were spending money on me because I was a very big presenter. Their customers were the ones attacking me, so they also started attacking the companies,” Shaffie said in a recent interview.

“That was the reason why my firing was effected. It was not because of what I said.”

Former Homeboyz Radio presenters Shaffie Weru, Neville Muasya and DJ Joe Mfalme. /NAIROBI NEWS