Crisis has hit Royal Media Services again after a sudden and shocking resignation of top Citizen TV news anchors Hussein Mohamed and Janet Mbugua.
The two have already tendered their resignation letters and it’s still unclear where the two TV top anchors are heading to. The exit of the two from Citizen TV is a big blow to RMS as media houses strategize on how to cover the complex and most competitive 2017 general election.
Hussein and Janet have resigned just days after Jeff Koinange joined the station and edged out some of them from prime time news. According to sources at Citizen TV Hussein and Janet had been given extra duties to do the morning Citizen Extra news which will run up to the end of the August 8 general elections.
Jeff is alleged to have joined RMS after signing a mega deal that will guarantee him a whooping Khs 2 million per month for the next 2 years. The move is reported to have angered some of the top Citizen TV news anchors who are paid averagely despite hustling for many years at the top TV station which is now making millions of shillings from adverts due to it’s large audience.
RMS recently sacked over 30 top journalists including TV Queens Terry Anne Chebet, Kirigo Ng’arua, journalists Abdi Osman, Kendagor Obadiah among others, which later led to a drop on the quality of the TV news leading to a recall of some of those who had been sacked like TV news editor Patrick Mathangani who received an emergency call from RMS Chief Operating officer Farida Karoney.
Meanwhile some of the RMS staff who were retrenched are now excelling after their own businesses. Meru based Weru TV which is owned by John Marete and managed by Young Muthomi has taken over the larger Meru region since it’s launch December 26 2016. The young station has attracted massive viewership locally and also diaspora Meru community.
Marete is a former Head of Camera Department while Muthomi is a former Head of Radio News at RMS.
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