Ken Mijungu Quits KTN After 4 Years

Veteran journalist, Ken Mijungu, has announced his exit from Standard Group Limited after four years.

Mijungu, who was known for anchoring at Standard's TV station, KTN, announced on Wednesday, February 5 that he was leaving the station...and the Mombasa Road-based media house.

He expressed his gratitude to his colleagues at the media house, and to God, for being with him throughout the four years. 

Mijungu remarked that it was time to explore a new environment, though did not reveal where he would go next. However, with Kenyan media houses having a knack for poaching some of the most famous faces on TV and radio, we could see him at another popular TV station.

"A good dancer knows when to exit the stage! 4 years of absolute adrenaline and nothing but the best as unpredictable as it was, It’s time to find something else to do when I still can," he wrote on X.

"Forever grateful to God, my colleagues at Standard Group and KTN. ADIOS!"

At the media house, Mijungu served as a News Editor/Programs Editor, News Anchor and Current affairs talk show host at KTN News, before and after the 24-hour news channel was merged into KTN Home.

Notably, he won plaudits after announcing on July 9, 2024, that Daadab Member of Parliament Farah Maalim was banned from being hosted on his show permanently.

Mijungu's move was in response to a viral clip which captured him allegedly telling President William Ruto to rein in Gen Z protesters who have been exercising their constitutional rights in opposition to the Finance Bill 2024.

"A member of Parliament is on camera saying if he was the president the day demonstrators breached parliament he would have killed 5,000 of them! A LAWMAKER said this! A SEASONED Legislator. As a patriotic Kenyan, I will never host him on my show again! Never," he wrote on X.

The journalist joined the Mombasa road-based station in December 2020 from NTV. Months prior, he was fired from Nation Media Group (NMG) alongside Debarl Inea and Harith Salim on July 3, 2020, amidst a redundancy exercise.

“The axe fell at NTV’s newsroom and I was on its way. 7 years in those corridors summed up in a two-page letter of termination. 

“We live to fight another day. Thanks to God, He remains the greatest, thank you NTV for the opportunity and thank you for always staying tuned,” he posted on Twitter (now X).

Mijungu, a trained lawyer, entered journalism during the 2007/2008 post-election violence. During the unrest, he borrowed a camera from his brother to document events unfolding in Kibera. At the time, a K24 news crew had lost their footage due to the chaos. Mijungu’s footage caught the attention of K24’s management, leading to his recruitment as a reporter.

He spent nearly three years and nine months at K24, working as a news desk reporter, business talk anchor, and talk show host.

In December 2012, he joined CCTV Africa (now CGTN Africa) as a reporter, covering major events such as the Mpila military base explosion in Congo Brazzaville and the London conference on Somalia.

After a year and three months, he moved to Nation Media Group’s NTV in February 2013, where he worked as a senior reporter and hosted the current affairs show Sidebar.

Ken Mijungu at NTV studios. /TUKO.CO.KE