Parent Company Of K24, People Daily Announces Mass Firings
The restructuring comes as Mediamax faces significant challenges in Kenya's rapidly changing media landscape.
Marvin Chege 
The job insecurity of Kenya's media industry has resurfaced in its usual devastating fashion. Mediamax Networks Limited, a company that owns K24 TV and People Daily among others, has initiated a major organisational restructuring that may result in employee redundancies across several departments.
In an internal memo dated July 14, 2025, Chief Executive Officer Ken Ngaruiya informed staff that the media company is undertaking strategic changes to enhance operational efficiency and adapt to evolving market conditions.
The restructuring comes as Mediamax faces significant challenges in Kenya's rapidly changing media landscape, a move that could possibly see hundreds of journalists lose their jobs.
A building along Kijabe Street housing Mediamax Networks. /BIZNA KENYA
"Mediamax Network Limited is undertaking a strategic restructuring and reorganisation of its business operations to enhance overall efficiency and effectiveness in response to evolving market dynamics, including digital transformation, innovation, shifting client needs and introduction of punitive regulations by the Government of Kenya affecting the media industry," the memo obtained by Viral Tea reads in part.
The company cited multiple external factors necessitating these difficult decisions, including the ongoing digital transformation of the media industry, declining business volumes, and a shrinking client base.
Additional pressures include outstanding payments from government entities, the national government's selective advertising policies favouring certain media outlets, and new restrictions on betting and gambling advertisements that have impacted revenue streams.
Mediamax said that these market realities have compelled the media house to review and streamline its operations to remain competitive and sustainable.
The company has however, assured employees that the redundancy process will fully comply with Kenyan labour laws, particularly Section 40 of the Employment Act (2007).
The company has committed to providing all affected staff with their complete terminal benefits package. This includes payment for days worked up to the termination date, salary in lieu of notice, compensation for any accrued but untaken leave days, and severance pay calculated at 15 days' salary for each completed year of service. The memo noted that any outstanding debts to the company would be deducted from final payments.
The restructuring process will include a 30-day evaluation period from July 15 to August 15, 2025, during which the company will assess opportunities to match employees' skills with available roles.
The management emphasised that every effort will be made to explore alternatives to redundancy through role realignments and departmental consolidations. Employees whose positions are ultimately declared redundant will receive individual consultations and detailed information about their specific compensation packages.
The company has formally notified the County Labour Office of its intentions as required by law, with further details about the restructuring to be communicated to staff in the coming weeks.
Mediamax operates multiple media platforms like K24 TV, Kameme TV, Radio Milele, Kameme FM, Mayian FM, Emoo FM, Msenangu FM, Meru FM, and the People Daily newspaper.
This highlights the turbulence that continues to plague the Kenyan media industry as a whole, with dwindling financial income plus government policies imposed on them threatening the long-standing lifespan of major media outlets, even digital.
Notably, this is not the first time Mediamax has been known to send crowds of its journalists home. In 2020, the media house at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country resorted to a mass firing exercise that included wiping clean K24 TV's entire newsroom, except for two journalists.
HR used a Short Message Service (SMS) to fire the affected journalists, though details of it were leaked on social media, sparking an uproar.
In November 2024, Mediamax shut down its People Daily hard copy newspaper, 32 years after launching as a weekly print publication, transitioning fully to digital in what it termed as a first for a major newspaper not only in Kenya but across Africa.
An image of K24 news studios. /FILE
