It Was Not The Remarks- Why Shaffie Weru Was Fired From Homeboyz Radio

Celebrated media personality, Shaffie Weru, has disclosed that the gender-insensitive remarks uttered live on air were not why he was fired from Homeboyz Radio on March 28, 2021.

The radio king was terminated from the Radio Africa Group radio station alongside Neville Musya, now attached to Trace Radio, and popular Disc-jockey Joseph Munoru alias DJ Joe Mfalme after their remarks triggered a nationwide uproar.

He disclosed on Thursday, November 24 that the comments which involved a Nairobi man who pushed a woman off the 12th floor of a building during a date and has since been found guilty, were not the basis of his ouster as something deeper and more complicated took centre stage.

According to him, the customers of the companies that had sponsored him owing to his premium status in the Kenyan radio industry had turned on him and directed their anger at the companies affiliated with him.

“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 told Nairobi News.

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

He revisited the origins of the controversial ouster, narrating the events that led to it which started when he was asked to fill in for fellow presenter G-Money during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

“When Covid came, one of my star presenters GMoney contracted the virus and someone needed to step in because we were short-staffed. At the time I was the head of Homeboyz radio as we were trying to re-acquire it from Homeboyz Entertainment to Radio Africa, and then the story happened,” he added.

He went on to reveal that he got fired just two days after he had made a radio comeback following a year-and-a-half mainstream media hiatus.

“It actually happened two days after I got back on the radio. I had not been on mainstream radio for like a year and a half, since 2020. Now in 2021 when I got back and did the breakfast show with DJ Joe Mfalme and Neville, that’s when I got fired.

“My big mouth and overzealous opinion caught up with me,” he added.

The father of two added that the termination almost threw him into depression and destabilised him, given that he had spent almost 20 years improving his craft in radio which was stripped from him through Twitter in the midnight hours.

Nonetheless, he expressed gratitude to his friends and family who stood by him through it all and helped him navigate the ordeal. He noted that he would have been careful at that time in the line of being in a situation whereby job losses were rampant with the onset of the pandemic as well as salary cuts.

“I had very solid friends because even when I got fired we were just chilling. It affected me more emotionally than physically but my friends were very supportive,” he said.

“I wish I had been more informed and woke to that particular situation and moment because a lot was happening at that time and people were going through a lot with covid, jobs being lost, and salaries being slashed. My only regret is that I was not able to remove myself from that particular moment, and not having read the room."

He noted that he would have been fired a long time ago if he genuinely had the wrong intentions at heart as he does not hold back his opinions.

Regarding his lawsuit against Radio Africa for unlawfully terminating his contract, Shaffie disclosed that they put their differences behind them, despite the case still being in court.

“It’s funny because Radio Africa and I are very cool right now, I have even been to their offices several times, and the company I’m working with, Roya is in business with them. But the court case is still going on, they have been in communication with my lawyers trying to align on matters of settling the case in court.

“I don’t know how that is going because I am not following up, my lawyer is handling it,” he added.

He demanded Ksh21 million from the media house for unfair and unlawful termination of his employment contract, having worked there for 18 years earning Ksh682,500 per month. However, the media house responded by counter-suing him for Ksh150 million.

Shaffie Weru driving his car. /FILE