02/07/07

Open letter to Linus . W. Gitahi, CEO, Nation Media Group

In view of the latest sacking of two of our colleagues, a group of journalists from Nation Centre and representative from all the bureaus and the broadcasting division held a meeting in Nairobi over the weekend and made a number of resolutions which we are now communicating to you.

We will from today be communicating with you as the NMG Liberation Front.

The movement was formed to redeem NMG’s lost glory and to fight for the rights of journalists, who have been an endangered species since you replaced Wilfred Kiboro in November last year. We have to confess that some of us were initially opposed to a decision by a section of our colleague to unleash a dossier on sex and other malpractices in NMG to the public through the internet and the alternative press (what we commonly refer as the gutter press) in an attempt to force Wangethi Mwangi and Joseph Odindo to resign for being responsible for the mess that has severely eroded the credibility of the Editorial Department. In particular, we were opposed to your name being dragged into the sleaze and we kept urging the authors of the dossier to give you time to settle down and we see the end result.

We were not opposed to the move by our colleagues because we supported Wangethi and Odindo. No. We know the two managers are rotten to the core and they stink more than what was revealed by the dossier. We were hoping that if you were given reasonable time to understudy the managers and the entire NMG, you would form better opinion to enable you clean up the mess that has been created by Wangethi and Odindo and restore the dignity of NMG and the journalism profession. We were also conscience of the fact that the credibility and reputation of everyone who works for NMG would be at stake if the dossier got to the public.

Both the innocent and the rotten bosses were bound to suffer and the damage was irreparable.

The consequences of the dossier being unleashed in the internet for consumption by the entire international community is well know to you and we don’t need to remind you. NMG has been bleeding since then and the hearts of many in NMG, their spouses and children were left badly wounded. You are one of those who were wounded. Although we had first taken you for an angel, time has proved us wrong. After critically evaluating the eight months you have been in NMG, the meeting came to the conclusion that you have no respect for journalists and the journalism profession. You are on a dangerous mission to ruin the profession and careers of Kenya’s best journalists. We have been watching the crisis that has engulfed NMG since you took over from Wilfred from the sidelines but time for action has come for us to speak out. We can no longer keep quiet when you are leading us to the slaughter house (kichiNjio kama ile ya Kanu Kasarani!!). The meeting concluded you are Number One enemy of the journalism profession and journalists and we have now declared an all out war with you in person.


When you declare war on journalists and the journalism profession, it shows the contempt you have for the people who put food on your table. Linus, your salary of Sh2.5 million comes from these people you have no respect for. Any media house, NMG included, is driven by what journalists write. NMG would not be what it is today were it not for us. Instead of appreciating the contribution we have made – we daily put our lives on the line to bring food to your table and other managers who have also shown contempt for us – you opted to rubbish the foot soldiers who are your pillars in the high office. We have now decided enough is enough and we’ll team up with the authors of the sex dossier to compel you and the other rotten managers to leave NMG. The choice is yours. Hang on, if you wish, and you’ll never have peace in NMG and you’ll always stink like raw sewage. . Your first task on landing in Nation Centre was to abruptly retrench 13 journalists based on criteria that is best known to Wangethi and Odindo. Although we are the people who hold public figures and other people accountable for their actions and conduct, we deplore the manner our 13 colleagues were shown the door in a very inhumane manner. You woke up one day and ordered the HR Director to send the 13 journalists packing without any prior notice. And to add insult to injury, you relied on Wangethi and Odindo to select those who were axed. We thought the process of retrenchment should have been the other way round. Wangethi and Odindo are solely responsible for the mess in the Editorial Department. Sex scandals aside, they have completely done a lot of harm in the Editorial Department and they should have been the first to bite the bullet. All the multiple posts that overlap duties should have been abolished and all the idle editors and other non-performing or incompetent journalists (for they are known) should have been sent home. For instance, what do Wangethi and Mwangi do?

What is the difference in the roles of their two offices? Is it then a wonder that they have a lot of time to chase junior female staff?
Is it then a wonder that Odindo keeps roaming around the newsroom aimlessly or kills boredom by sleeping and snoring in his office all afternoons? Is it a wonder that Wangethi hosts beer parties in his office most afternoons or finds time to go to Muthaiga to play golf in the mornings of week days when other employees are starting the day’s work? Would you tolerate any journalist if found him with a can of beer on his desk? If the reason for retrenching the 13 journalists was to lower the huge Editorial wage bill, then you achieved nothing.
You sent home guys who were earning peanuts and left intact idlers who take home huge pay. How comes the retrenchment only affected journalists and not other departments?
Is it that both Wangethi and Odindo don’t get satisfaction from their wives that they have to been molesting young girls and other people’s wives who are old enough to be their daughters? What our colleagues did to expose them is only kionjo and we have a pleasant surprise for them. Apart from the 13 journalists who were retrenched by Wangethi and Odindo with your blessings, NMG has continued to be hit by an unprecedented mass resignations of journalists; either to venture into more greener pastures or poached by small outfits or due to being victimised by you. At least 10 of NMG’s top journalists have resigned in the aftermath of the infamous retrenchment you sanctioned.
It’s a big shame that small outlets like Classic/Kiss FM stations and the Kenya Times can poach seasoned journalists and you seem to be happy with the situation.
Other journalists have resigned after being frustrated by you. And in your on-going onslaught on journalists, you recently sanctioned the sacking of two correspondents, Peter Njenga (sports) and Francis Thoya (courts), on mere suspicion they might have participated in authoring or dissemination the dossier that revealed that you and your new-found friends in NMG can’t keep their zips shut. We have information that Wangethi, Odindo and Koskei played a key role in the sacking of the two poor correspondents.
How they arrived at the conclusion that the two might have taken part in compiling the sex dossier is best known by the three.
Almost everybody in the newsroom know for a fact that Odindo’s secretary, Prisca Kimani, played a major role in unleashing the first part of the sex dossier after she discovered her boss was having an affair with both her and Adhiambo Odera.
How comes she has not been axed? Or is Odindo fearing she might spill the beans? We understand that the Wangethi, Odindo and Koskei gang is baying for the blood of other journalists and more heads are likely to roll soon.
We don’t fear being sacked. Go ahead and sack the whole lot in the Editorial Department. You can recruit a fresh lot or work with the sex maniacs. It’s ironical that NMG’s new slogan for the Daily Nation is The Truth and yet none of the bosses practice what they and the company preaches.
If we stand for THE TRUTH, then why are we so afraid of being told a few home-truths? Or is the truth so sweet when told about other people we report about and not ourselves?
Why are Wangethi and Odindo so afraid of being exposed about their illicit office sex affairs? We have noted that NTV has of late been airing Daily Nation’s commercials projecting it as the only source of truthful news. Why do we cheat the public?
Which truth does NMG stand for? If we can suppress internal truth and democracy, why do we cheat and yet we stand for the truth? We know for a fact that NMG has been suffering from an identity crisis due the damaging sex scandal and the sales of its products have drastically gone down. The new DN commercials are a desperate attempt to win back public confidence.
We also know NMG bosses feels threatened by the new newspaper being unveiled by Classic/Kiss FM stations and they are determined to spoil their party for them.
Linus, your evil mechanisations will never fool anyone. You, Wangethi and the snoring Odindo are driven by chronic jealousy. You are here to ruin careers of journalists and the journalism profession and not to make it grow. We have noted that you have joined Wangethi, Odindo and HR Director in systematically killing the union so that we don’t have a joint voice to fight for our rights.
We are aware of how you and the other managers frustrated one of Nation’s best writers, Peter Kimani, and forced him to resign purely because he was fighting for our rights.
His departure was celebrated by you and the other managers who viewed him as a threat for telling the management the truth. KUJ representatives who remained behind are so timid and they would rather keep quiet for the sake of their jobs. We don’t blame them. All of us have cowed in silence for long and time for action is now. We understand you compromised KUJ national officials when you kept inviting them to your office in March and April and that is why their voices have never been heard after you signed a CBA with them.
By forcing the outspoken Kimani from Nation, you thought you had solved your woes. We, who were left behind, will be more crude in our approach to drum sense into your head. NMG has never before been faced with such a serious credibility crisis as the one that we are currently experiencing due to your inept leadership.
You inherited a vibrant and respectable company from Wilfred but now the future looks bleak. Rather than we watch helplessly as you mess the company and our careers, we will stop you first.
And we will stop at nothing to stop your madness. You must respect the journalists who have made this company what it is today.
Were it not for the revenue we generate for this company – through professional journalism that has no match in any other media house in East and Central Africa region – you would never have bothered to take up the CEO’s job at NMG. You are reaping the fruits of the foundation that was set up by our sweat and blood.
NMG was well respected and calm before you were appointed (or is it selected) CEO.
Instead of solving problems diplomatically, you prefer to sit on the fence and you have made one blunder after another for the past eight months. We will reclaim NMG's lost glory at any cost - but without you as the CEO.
How can we be led by a CEO who picks prostitutes in Koinange Street, one who is also a gay and a wife snatcher?
Yet you claim to be a born-again Christian! How can we continue to be led by managers who have given Nation Centre the dubious title of a brothel? NMG has totally lost focus and any moral authority to be the mirror of the society under your inept leadership. Surely, no person worth the title of a CEO can emulate the record you have set in your short stint you have been at Nation Centre.
Just to name a few, sex scandals, retrenchment of journalists, mass resignations, and sacking of innocent journalists have been the hallmark of your eight-month leadership at NMG. You stink worse off than the managers you protect. You pretend to be a staunch Christian yet you have time to screw other men’s boots!! The meeting held over the weekend resolved to issue the following demands to you: 1) We are adding our voices to the earlier demands by our colleagues for the immediate resignation of Wangethi and Odindo.
2) You must convene a meeting of all journalists – both print and electronic – on the 3rd floor before July 31 to deliberate on the crisis in the Editorial Department, which we blame it squarely on yourself, Wangethi and Odindo.
3) The immediate setting up of an independent commission to re-evaluate individual cases of all the journalists who have left NMG – under any circumstances – since you replaced Wilfred. We believe the majority of the journalists were innocent and they were either shown the door or opted to resign due to your own personal vendetta and that of Wangethi and Odindo.
4) You must demonstrate respect for journalists and the journalism profession by tendering an immediate apology. Your own apology must be placed in all the noticeboards and lifts before July 31. We are aware you have been insisting you don’t respond to anonymous letters sent to you by journalists.
We have no problem with that. You can fire all of us in the editorial or ask Brig Ali to send all of us to jail, if you wish. We are ready to pay any price to safeguard our careers and the journalism profession and to show solidality with our colleagues whom you have pushed out of NMG.
Linus, since you display so much contempt for journalists, why don't you replace us with your wife and children and see if they can perform better than us?
Kenyans who read this letter should know it is not our wish to wash dirty linen in public. We have resorted to this because unlike other workers, journalists have no forum to express their concerns.
All other workers turn to us to highlight their plight and we publish it. Yet, we journalists would never be allowed by the management to publish what is troubling us. Linus you are no different from the ruthless and mean-looking Wangethi and Odindo.
You closed all avenues of dialogue and those who dare speak out their minds during internal meetings are shown the door.
So, the only option left open to us is the internet and the alternative press. Kenyans should know that mainstream media have unwritten rules that bar them from reporting negative things (and even positive) about their rivals.
Birds of the same feather flock together and they would be happy to cover each other. No one would risk to expose the dirty in the other media house for fear their rot would also be exposed. It's cover my back and I cover my back.
You, Wangethi and Odindo will never have peace for the rest of your careers in NMG. You'll be hearing from us again . . . very soon. The hour of reckoning is yet to come. We'll spread the damage far and wide.
lgitahi@nation.co.ke
wmwangi@nation.co.ke
jodindo@nation.co.ke
skoskei@nation.co.ke