02/17/2007
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EXPOSED:
THE MOTHER OF ALL SEX SCANDALS IN NATION MEDIA GROUP
, Nation Centre
Okebe "man of God", you have shares in a brothel!
Dear Mr Linus Gitahi,
CEO Nation Media Group
Nairobi, Kenya
On January 23, 2007, the staff of the Editorial Dept wrote an open letter to you detailing the rot and sex scandals that have rocked the house His Highness the Aga Khan built. We are sure the Nation Media Group leadership has never revealed to the Aga Khan the truth that the house he built from holy funds has been turned into a brothel by the very same senior managers he has entrusted with running his affairs. All is not well at the leading Media House in East and Central African region but you have shown you are least bothered.
The information we have is that when you, Mr Wangethi Mwangi and the other top brass visited the Aga Khan in Paris between February 5 and 7, you only presented the good side about the NMG leadership and deliberately omitted the rot that has been choking the majority of innocent and clean staff. That is understandable. The NMG leadership has a reputation of covering each others backs, even when a few apples in their midst are stinking. The Aga Khan and the entire world will soon be hearing from us.
Instead of addressing the problems we raised in the Staff Climate Survey forms that were submitted to the HR Dept in October and the views we gave during a team building retreat in Loitokitok,a couple of years back, you have decided to organize yet another retreat. What we said in Loitokitok, in other forums and in the various letters we have sent you has never been addressed and nothing has ever changed. This shows the contempt you hold the Editorial Dept, which is the pillar of this media giant. We have various options at our disposal to see who surrenders first. No one will be spared, even yourself if we find anything of your dark past. Nothing can bribe us. We will continue rocking the boat even after we come back from the retreat.
We will go to the retreat you have organized as a ritual to satisfy your own curiosity, not because we have any faith in the retreat or your leadership. You squandered a very good opportunity to clean up the mess when you sanctioned the retrenchment of small fish who had done nothing wrong and left the networks of corruption and immorality intact.
In our earlier letter to you, we demanded the immediate resignation of the Group Editorial Director, Mr Wangethi Mwangi, and the Group Managing Editor, Mr Joseph Odindo, for bringing to shame the journalism profession by being involved in a string of sex scandals and being solely responsible for the mess in the Editorial Department by trashing the laid down policies on employment and promotions to quench their sexual appetite and reward their friends and cronies.
It's a well known fact even outside NMG that Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo have been using helpless and innocent female staff as sex pawns to achieve personal and narrow objectives. Although a majority of the female staff are upright, but there is ample evidence that some have been given jobs, promotions and salary increments based on their sexual performance. NMG rules on promotions and employment have largely been ignored by the two senior editors and they have been rewarding their friends and women they have taken to bed based on sexual performance. This culture has been going on for years and we expected you would bring it to an abrupt end and clean up the mess. Sadly, you totally disappointed us and killed our spirits.
However, as you categorically stated during a staff meeting with the entire editorial on February 1, 2007, you are least bothered by rot in Nation Centre and it not your desire to put things right. In your address, you expressed confidence in the rotten managers and we can only conclude that you endorsed their crooked ways. You simply gave them a clean bill of health.
In our letter, we given both Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo up to end of February to search their conscience and resign. However, there are strong indications that their conscience doesn't prick them. We will prick it for them. You have seen nothing yet. The chickens are coming home to roost from March 1. Tighten your nerves and wait. We will systematically slay them one after the other with hard facts and the absolute truth. As we said, the choice is purely theirs. They choose to take an early bus home and save themselves and their families stinging humiliation or cling to their offices and walk around town smelling like raw sewage.
You must have your own reasons why you want to defend the rotten managers. And we have our own reasons for exposing them. Contrary to the suggestions that were made by yourself and other speakers during the February 1 meeting that those who have been exposing the rot in NMG have the desire to rock the boat, the claims are further from the truth. There is a clear distinction between a company and an individual's personal conduct and affairs.
It nonsensical to insinuate or imagine that the NMG boat would sink just because the sex predators have been exposed. It's purely a personal decision for those managers who have been walking around Nation Centre with their zips open. The managers and their girlfriends must carry their own crosses and not drag the rest of us in their immoral ways. NMG's great name will never sink because of the people who have turned Nation Centre into a brothel.
We were shocked that instead of taking the platform on February 1 to congratulate the brave men and women who wants good morals to be restored at Nation Centre, you decided to demonise them. Your hard stance and the new lifeline you gave the sex predators will be your undoing. You have given us new resolve to go the extra mile of bringing to shame the managers who can't keep their zips shut. In the same way Nation has been taking pride in splashing stories on Mr John Githongo exposing the mega corruption in Kibaki's backyard and the horrifying sex life of the flamboyant Bishop Wanjiru, NMG managers who have a dark history should start dreading March 1. What moral authority does NMG has to expose the evils in society if it can't clean up its own mess or remove a log in its own eyes?
Our research and analysis team has completed its investigation and they have pieced together a detailed, accurate and comprehensive dossier on the sex scandals at NMG. The dossier will be made available in the internet, the streets of Nairobi and other major towns, to the wives and children of the sex pests, the diplomatic community, religious organizations and all NMG staff.
The dossier contains shocking revelations on the sex lives of senior NMG managers. We have photographic evidence, confession statements and affidavits from some of the women who have been lured to bed by the managers and others from the men who had to break relationships with their spouses or fiancés after uncovering secret love affairs involving NMG managers, court documents on some of the managers who have found themselves in court to defend themselves on damaging sex scandals, emails and mobile telephone computer print-outs. We promise you it will be a must read. Continue watching this space.
At the moment, our research team has pieced together a detailed report on the sex lives of four senior managers and it will start rolling off our mill from March 1. We will give you the snap shots of what to expect.
Ms Helen Mbugua
Group Human Resources Director
Find out:
(*) How a love affair blossomed between Mrs Mbugua and Mr David Waweru before he moved from Nation Centre to KBC.
(*) How Mrs Mbugua sneaks her lover to her matrimonial home in Kilimani when her husband is out of the country and the children are away.
(*) Why the love affair wont end and why Mr Mbugua needs to worry.
(*) Do we have photos of the two love-birds? Find out from us from March 1. It's a secret romance that will leave you on edge.
This information will land in your house in Kilimani.
Mr Cyrille Nabutola
Group Marketing Director
Find out:
(*) Why Mr Nabutola is referred to as the Bull of Nation Centre
(*) How many sales executives he has had affairs with and how many are proud mothers of his children.
(*) His romantic adventures in the office
(*) Why NMG leadership can't dare touch him despite being aware of his love escapades.
This information will land in your house in Runda.
Mr Wangethi Mwangi
Group Editorial Director
Find out:
(*) His love affairs with Irene Karanja (his former secretary), Veronica Kinyanjui (former Features Editor), Linda Gacheru (a junior staff who rose through the ranks rapidly and ended up in a plum job the HR Dept), Wahu (formerly of Advertising Dept), Njeri Mwangi (formerly a reporter of Editorial Dept), Adhiambo Odera (Buzz Editor) and Claire Gatheru (a reporter who was axed in the recent retrenchment).
(*) Why Irene's husband who was a lawyer committed suicide in an Eldoret hotel.
(*) How the police treated the death and shocking letters that our research team has uncovered that led to Irene's husband committing suicide.
(*) How did he discover the secret love affair between Mr Mwangi and how he desparately tried to stop the affair in vain.
(*) What Irene's husband said before he decided to kill himself. Would he be alive today were it not for Mr Mwangi?
(*) How a love affair blossomed between Mr Mwangi and Linda. Why did her fiance` abruptly cancel his wedding with Linda? Why did Mr Mwangi jump out through the window of her Buru Buru House at night? What role did Mr Mwangi play in the break up?
(*) How Mr Mwangi continued with the affair with Linda even after she found a new love, who ended up marrying her.
(*) Why Linda's husband had jitters on the wedding day. Why was he jittery? Why did Mr Mwangi tactfully swap his green Merceden Benz with Ken Oluoch's on the eve of the wedding for transporting the bride?
(*) Why Mr Mwangi spirited Linda out of NMG and secured her a job elsewhere. Why did Linda abruptly change jobs?
(*) What Njeri Mwangi said in her affidavit on Mr Mwangi's sexual advancement?
(*) What happened to the sexual harassment case Njeri Mwangi filed in the High Court against Mr Mwangi.
(*) Why has Njeri Mwangi returned to Kenya from the US. What's the new weapon she has against Mr Mwangi. Why did Mr Mwangi go into a hysterical panic when he learnt Ms Mwangi was back in the country.
(*) The full details of the love triangle involving Mr Mwangi, Mr Odindo Adhiambo Odera. Who are the other lovers of Ms Odera in the newsroom? Do the two top editors share her with junior reporters behind their backs?
(*) Why Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo influenced the employment of Ms Odera knowing too well that she had been to a back-street college and she can't write or edit a story. Why did she rise from a mere correspondent straight to an editor without being a reporter after a romantic expedition with Mr Mwangi in Malindi? Why were Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo in a desperate situation when Mr Kiboro put his foot down that Ms Odera was not qualified for the job? What did they do to prevail upon Mr Kiboro to change his mind?
Read much more about the Wangethi Mwangi you have never known from March 1. This information will land in your house in Kileleshwa.
Mr Joseph Odindo
Group Managing Editor
Find out:
(*) His secret love affairs with Adhiambo Odera, Ms Lucy Oriang (whom he has been instrumental in giving her plum jobs when a new list of promotions is out), Ms Rhoda Orengo, and a string of other women. (*) The secret affair between him and Mildred Ngesa and why he influenced her switch from the Standard to NMG.
This information will land in your house in Lavington.
The mess and stench in the Editorial Dept is a creation of Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo. Are these the people His Highness the Aga Khan has entrusted with the affairs of his great company? Are these the role models our own children? Are they fit to be the mirror of our society? What moral authority do they have to point out ills in the society?
NMG prides itself as the leading media house in East and Central African region but its reputation is now at stake because of a small group of the ruling elite. We promise you that the dossier will shake the NMG right in its core and the world will for the first time know the dark and hallowing secrets that Nation Centre conceals. It's the responsibility of the majority of the staff who mean well for the future of NMG to preserve the integrity of this great company and the journalism profession.
Before the Feb 28 deadline approached, we would like to urge you, Mr Gitahi, to convene another meeting of the entire editorial staff, like the one which was held on 3rd floor on February 1, 2007, so that Mr Mwangi, Mr Odindo, Mr Nabutola, Mrs Mbugua and a few other sex pests we are currently digging their dark history can take the Holy Bible and swear they are not guilty of the issues we have raised above. During the February 1 meeting, the entire floor burst into laughter when Mr Mwangi broke down when he was narrating how his wife had confronted him with a Citizen newspaper which carried a story on his sex life. Nobody sympathized with him because everybody on 3rd floor knows the truth.
Redundant posts
Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo are responsible for creating so many posts which duplicate roles to reward their friends and girlfriends. In our previous letters, we have listed the posts that need to be merged or scrapped but this has fallen on deaf ears. We have a whole battalion of people walking around the newsroom carrying titles of editors and they have nothing to show for it. A big chunk of the budget for the Editorial Dept goes to paying heft salaries for the idle editors. It's immoral to pay one idle editor Sh400,000 each month and pay a reporter who toils like slave Sh60,000. All the top editors and managers earn salaries of between Sh500,000 and Sh1million plus each month.
For instance, where is the wisdom of having the posts of Editorial Director and Group Managing Editor? And what about the numerous posts of Managing Editors? And yet still, the countless posts of editors? No wonder Mr Mwangi has a lot of time to lift skirts, play golf during morning working hours and entertain his friends in beer sessions in his office in the afternoon. And Mr Odindo is often falling asleep in his office in the afternoon due to boredom. And this happens when majority of hardworking journalists are toiling so hard to generate the hefty salaries and perks for the bored and idle editors. It was also shocking to hear you and the other managers making a mockery about our degrees. Where else doe we have Form Six editors in the newsroom apart from NMG? How can correspondents and reporters who are university graduates, some with first degrees and others with Masters degrees, continue reporting to Form Six drop outs? It's the policy of NMG that reporters and correspondents should have a minimum qualification of a university degree. Why is the rule an exception to some of the editors? Mr Gitahi, you have no option but to respect our academic qualifications. Form Six and Form Four editors must leave our newsroom if you want peace.
Union
It was ridiculous to hear managers on February 1 denying they had not played any role in killing the journalists union. There is no doubt that NMG leadership played a big role in the death of the union and this started when new journalists were denied a chance to join KUJ. This weakened the union since members who leave are not replaced. Salaries for our members have not been reviewed for the past three years. Yet, the management staff gets heft pay rise every January. We demand the immediate review of our salaries. Flimsy excuses wont wash.
Correspondents
About 75 percent of the content published in all NMG publications is the work of correspondents, casual workers who are paid peanuts for the sweat of their labour. Though NMG prides itself as the champion of human rights and publishes stories on how other companies oppress their employees, the opposite happens in NMG. Correspondents are today's modern slaves. Although they toil so hard, they end up being paid peanuts and most of them live in abject poverty and die in misery. This lot is paid by the length of the stories they write. But the mode of calculation is top secret by the NMG leadership to ensure a huge chunk is taken away from the poor correspondents to take care of the hefty salaries of their bosses. That is one way the Editorial bosses manage to live within the department's budget. We demand better pay. Most correspondents remain unemployed during their entire careers.It's a miracle for the correspondents, especially those in the rural areas to earn Sh5,000 a month. Isn't it immoral for editors and a group of well connected staff to go smiling all bank and the poor and voiceless correspondents can't have a decent living
We demand a complete overhaul of the entire Editorial Dept. Idle bosses and all those tainted with corruption must be sent packing. We need a transparent criteria of employment, promotions and sharing of training opportunities. There will never be any peace in Nation Centre until these demands are met. We are tired of seling our blood for peanuts. Moto umewaka.
Let's have a date with each one of you on March 1. The whole truth about the rot and decay in Nation Centre will be on display for the whole world to read and see.
=====================================================- Why have we decided to blow off the lid , Nation Centre
- How the dossier was compiled , Nation Centre
- Linus Wang’ombe Gitahi, NMG’s CEO , Nation Centre
- Adhiambo Odera, Buzz Editor, Sunday Nation. , Nation Centre
- Wangethi’s other affairs in NMG , Nation Centre
- Wangethi’s love affairs with mothers and their daughters , Nation Centre
- Dennis Aluanga , Nation Centre
- Wilfred Kiboro' sexual affairs , Nation Centre
- Why are NMG bosses so sex hungry? , Nation Centre
- Union , Nation Centre
- Correspondents , Nation Centre
- PART TWO & THREE , Nation Centre
Okebe "man of God", you have shares in a brothel!
Dear Mr Linus Gitahi,
CEO Nation Media Group
Nairobi, Kenya
On January 23, 2007, the staff of the Editorial Dept wrote an open letter to you detailing the rot and sex scandals that have rocked the house His Highness the Aga Khan built. We are sure the Nation Media Group leadership has never revealed to the Aga Khan the truth that the house he built from holy funds has been turned into a brothel by the very same senior managers he has entrusted with running his affairs. All is not well at the leading Media House in East and Central African region but you have shown you are least bothered.
The information we have is that when you, Mr Wangethi Mwangi and the other top brass visited the Aga Khan in Paris between February 5 and 7, you only presented the good side about the NMG leadership and deliberately omitted the rot that has been choking the majority of innocent and clean staff. That is understandable. The NMG leadership has a reputation of covering each others backs, even when a few apples in their midst are stinking. The Aga Khan and the entire world will soon be hearing from us.
Instead of addressing the problems we raised in the Staff Climate Survey forms that were submitted to the HR Dept in October and the views we gave during a team building retreat in Loitokitok,a couple of years back, you have decided to organize yet another retreat. What we said in Loitokitok, in other forums and in the various letters we have sent you has never been addressed and nothing has ever changed. This shows the contempt you hold the Editorial Dept, which is the pillar of this media giant. We have various options at our disposal to see who surrenders first. No one will be spared, even yourself if we find anything of your dark past. Nothing can bribe us. We will continue rocking the boat even after we come back from the retreat.
We will go to the retreat you have organized as a ritual to satisfy your own curiosity, not because we have any faith in the retreat or your leadership. You squandered a very good opportunity to clean up the mess when you sanctioned the retrenchment of small fish who had done nothing wrong and left the networks of corruption and immorality intact.
In our earlier letter to you, we demanded the immediate resignation of the Group Editorial Director, Mr Wangethi Mwangi, and the Group Managing Editor, Mr Joseph Odindo, for bringing to shame the journalism profession by being involved in a string of sex scandals and being solely responsible for the mess in the Editorial Department by trashing the laid down policies on employment and promotions to quench their sexual appetite and reward their friends and cronies.
It's a well known fact even outside NMG that Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo have been using helpless and innocent female staff as sex pawns to achieve personal and narrow objectives. Although a majority of the female staff are upright, but there is ample evidence that some have been given jobs, promotions and salary increments based on their sexual performance. NMG rules on promotions and employment have largely been ignored by the two senior editors and they have been rewarding their friends and women they have taken to bed based on sexual performance. This culture has been going on for years and we expected you would bring it to an abrupt end and clean up the mess. Sadly, you totally disappointed us and killed our spirits.
However, as you categorically stated during a staff meeting with the entire editorial on February 1, 2007, you are least bothered by rot in Nation Centre and it not your desire to put things right. In your address, you expressed confidence in the rotten managers and we can only conclude that you endorsed their crooked ways. You simply gave them a clean bill of health.
In our letter, we given both Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo up to end of February to search their conscience and resign. However, there are strong indications that their conscience doesn't prick them. We will prick it for them. You have seen nothing yet. The chickens are coming home to roost from March 1. Tighten your nerves and wait. We will systematically slay them one after the other with hard facts and the absolute truth. As we said, the choice is purely theirs. They choose to take an early bus home and save themselves and their families stinging humiliation or cling to their offices and walk around town smelling like raw sewage.
You must have your own reasons why you want to defend the rotten managers. And we have our own reasons for exposing them. Contrary to the suggestions that were made by yourself and other speakers during the February 1 meeting that those who have been exposing the rot in NMG have the desire to rock the boat, the claims are further from the truth. There is a clear distinction between a company and an individual's personal conduct and affairs.
It nonsensical to insinuate or imagine that the NMG boat would sink just because the sex predators have been exposed. It's purely a personal decision for those managers who have been walking around Nation Centre with their zips open. The managers and their girlfriends must carry their own crosses and not drag the rest of us in their immoral ways. NMG's great name will never sink because of the people who have turned Nation Centre into a brothel.
We were shocked that instead of taking the platform on February 1 to congratulate the brave men and women who wants good morals to be restored at Nation Centre, you decided to demonise them. Your hard stance and the new lifeline you gave the sex predators will be your undoing. You have given us new resolve to go the extra mile of bringing to shame the managers who can't keep their zips shut. In the same way Nation has been taking pride in splashing stories on Mr John Githongo exposing the mega corruption in Kibaki's backyard and the horrifying sex life of the flamboyant Bishop Wanjiru, NMG managers who have a dark history should start dreading March 1. What moral authority does NMG has to expose the evils in society if it can't clean up its own mess or remove a log in its own eyes?
Our research and analysis team has completed its investigation and they have pieced together a detailed, accurate and comprehensive dossier on the sex scandals at NMG. The dossier will be made available in the internet, the streets of Nairobi and other major towns, to the wives and children of the sex pests, the diplomatic community, religious organizations and all NMG staff.
The dossier contains shocking revelations on the sex lives of senior NMG managers. We have photographic evidence, confession statements and affidavits from some of the women who have been lured to bed by the managers and others from the men who had to break relationships with their spouses or fiancés after uncovering secret love affairs involving NMG managers, court documents on some of the managers who have found themselves in court to defend themselves on damaging sex scandals, emails and mobile telephone computer print-outs. We promise you it will be a must read. Continue watching this space.
At the moment, our research team has pieced together a detailed report on the sex lives of four senior managers and it will start rolling off our mill from March 1. We will give you the snap shots of what to expect.
Ms Helen Mbugua
Group Human Resources Director
Find out:
(*) How a love affair blossomed between Mrs Mbugua and Mr David Waweru before he moved from Nation Centre to KBC.
(*) How Mrs Mbugua sneaks her lover to her matrimonial home in Kilimani when her husband is out of the country and the children are away.
(*) Why the love affair wont end and why Mr Mbugua needs to worry.
(*) Do we have photos of the two love-birds? Find out from us from March 1. It's a secret romance that will leave you on edge.
This information will land in your house in Kilimani.
Mr Cyrille Nabutola
Group Marketing Director
Find out:
(*) Why Mr Nabutola is referred to as the Bull of Nation Centre
(*) How many sales executives he has had affairs with and how many are proud mothers of his children.
(*) His romantic adventures in the office
(*) Why NMG leadership can't dare touch him despite being aware of his love escapades.
This information will land in your house in Runda.
Mr Wangethi Mwangi
Group Editorial Director
Find out:
(*) His love affairs with Irene Karanja (his former secretary), Veronica Kinyanjui (former Features Editor), Linda Gacheru (a junior staff who rose through the ranks rapidly and ended up in a plum job the HR Dept), Wahu (formerly of Advertising Dept), Njeri Mwangi (formerly a reporter of Editorial Dept), Adhiambo Odera (Buzz Editor) and Claire Gatheru (a reporter who was axed in the recent retrenchment).
(*) Why Irene's husband who was a lawyer committed suicide in an Eldoret hotel.
(*) How the police treated the death and shocking letters that our research team has uncovered that led to Irene's husband committing suicide.
(*) How did he discover the secret love affair between Mr Mwangi and how he desparately tried to stop the affair in vain.
(*) What Irene's husband said before he decided to kill himself. Would he be alive today were it not for Mr Mwangi?
(*) How a love affair blossomed between Mr Mwangi and Linda. Why did her fiance` abruptly cancel his wedding with Linda? Why did Mr Mwangi jump out through the window of her Buru Buru House at night? What role did Mr Mwangi play in the break up?
(*) How Mr Mwangi continued with the affair with Linda even after she found a new love, who ended up marrying her.
(*) Why Linda's husband had jitters on the wedding day. Why was he jittery? Why did Mr Mwangi tactfully swap his green Merceden Benz with Ken Oluoch's on the eve of the wedding for transporting the bride?
(*) Why Mr Mwangi spirited Linda out of NMG and secured her a job elsewhere. Why did Linda abruptly change jobs?
(*) What Njeri Mwangi said in her affidavit on Mr Mwangi's sexual advancement?
(*) What happened to the sexual harassment case Njeri Mwangi filed in the High Court against Mr Mwangi.
(*) Why has Njeri Mwangi returned to Kenya from the US. What's the new weapon she has against Mr Mwangi. Why did Mr Mwangi go into a hysterical panic when he learnt Ms Mwangi was back in the country.
(*) The full details of the love triangle involving Mr Mwangi, Mr Odindo Adhiambo Odera. Who are the other lovers of Ms Odera in the newsroom? Do the two top editors share her with junior reporters behind their backs?
(*) Why Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo influenced the employment of Ms Odera knowing too well that she had been to a back-street college and she can't write or edit a story. Why did she rise from a mere correspondent straight to an editor without being a reporter after a romantic expedition with Mr Mwangi in Malindi? Why were Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo in a desperate situation when Mr Kiboro put his foot down that Ms Odera was not qualified for the job? What did they do to prevail upon Mr Kiboro to change his mind?
Read much more about the Wangethi Mwangi you have never known from March 1. This information will land in your house in Kileleshwa.
Mr Joseph Odindo
Group Managing Editor
Find out:
(*) His secret love affairs with Adhiambo Odera, Ms Lucy Oriang (whom he has been instrumental in giving her plum jobs when a new list of promotions is out), Ms Rhoda Orengo, and a string of other women. (*) The secret affair between him and Mildred Ngesa and why he influenced her switch from the Standard to NMG.
This information will land in your house in Lavington.
The mess and stench in the Editorial Dept is a creation of Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo. Are these the people His Highness the Aga Khan has entrusted with the affairs of his great company? Are these the role models our own children? Are they fit to be the mirror of our society? What moral authority do they have to point out ills in the society?
NMG prides itself as the leading media house in East and Central African region but its reputation is now at stake because of a small group of the ruling elite. We promise you that the dossier will shake the NMG right in its core and the world will for the first time know the dark and hallowing secrets that Nation Centre conceals. It's the responsibility of the majority of the staff who mean well for the future of NMG to preserve the integrity of this great company and the journalism profession.
Before the Feb 28 deadline approached, we would like to urge you, Mr Gitahi, to convene another meeting of the entire editorial staff, like the one which was held on 3rd floor on February 1, 2007, so that Mr Mwangi, Mr Odindo, Mr Nabutola, Mrs Mbugua and a few other sex pests we are currently digging their dark history can take the Holy Bible and swear they are not guilty of the issues we have raised above. During the February 1 meeting, the entire floor burst into laughter when Mr Mwangi broke down when he was narrating how his wife had confronted him with a Citizen newspaper which carried a story on his sex life. Nobody sympathized with him because everybody on 3rd floor knows the truth.
Redundant posts
Mr Mwangi and Mr Odindo are responsible for creating so many posts which duplicate roles to reward their friends and girlfriends. In our previous letters, we have listed the posts that need to be merged or scrapped but this has fallen on deaf ears. We have a whole battalion of people walking around the newsroom carrying titles of editors and they have nothing to show for it. A big chunk of the budget for the Editorial Dept goes to paying heft salaries for the idle editors. It's immoral to pay one idle editor Sh400,000 each month and pay a reporter who toils like slave Sh60,000. All the top editors and managers earn salaries of between Sh500,000 and Sh1million plus each month.
For instance, where is the wisdom of having the posts of Editorial Director and Group Managing Editor? And what about the numerous posts of Managing Editors? And yet still, the countless posts of editors? No wonder Mr Mwangi has a lot of time to lift skirts, play golf during morning working hours and entertain his friends in beer sessions in his office in the afternoon. And Mr Odindo is often falling asleep in his office in the afternoon due to boredom. And this happens when majority of hardworking journalists are toiling so hard to generate the hefty salaries and perks for the bored and idle editors. It was also shocking to hear you and the other managers making a mockery about our degrees. Where else doe we have Form Six editors in the newsroom apart from NMG? How can correspondents and reporters who are university graduates, some with first degrees and others with Masters degrees, continue reporting to Form Six drop outs? It's the policy of NMG that reporters and correspondents should have a minimum qualification of a university degree. Why is the rule an exception to some of the editors? Mr Gitahi, you have no option but to respect our academic qualifications. Form Six and Form Four editors must leave our newsroom if you want peace.
Union
It was ridiculous to hear managers on February 1 denying they had not played any role in killing the journalists union. There is no doubt that NMG leadership played a big role in the death of the union and this started when new journalists were denied a chance to join KUJ. This weakened the union since members who leave are not replaced. Salaries for our members have not been reviewed for the past three years. Yet, the management staff gets heft pay rise every January. We demand the immediate review of our salaries. Flimsy excuses wont wash.
Correspondents
About 75 percent of the content published in all NMG publications is the work of correspondents, casual workers who are paid peanuts for the sweat of their labour. Though NMG prides itself as the champion of human rights and publishes stories on how other companies oppress their employees, the opposite happens in NMG. Correspondents are today's modern slaves. Although they toil so hard, they end up being paid peanuts and most of them live in abject poverty and die in misery. This lot is paid by the length of the stories they write. But the mode of calculation is top secret by the NMG leadership to ensure a huge chunk is taken away from the poor correspondents to take care of the hefty salaries of their bosses. That is one way the Editorial bosses manage to live within the department's budget. We demand better pay. Most correspondents remain unemployed during their entire careers.It's a miracle for the correspondents, especially those in the rural areas to earn Sh5,000 a month. Isn't it immoral for editors and a group of well connected staff to go smiling all bank and the poor and voiceless correspondents can't have a decent living
We demand a complete overhaul of the entire Editorial Dept. Idle bosses and all those tainted with corruption must be sent packing. We need a transparent criteria of employment, promotions and sharing of training opportunities. There will never be any peace in Nation Centre until these demands are met. We are tired of seling our blood for peanuts. Moto umewaka.
Let's have a date with each one of you on March 1. The whole truth about the rot and decay in Nation Centre will be on display for the whole world to read and see.
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IDWARO TICH?
INJILI GOSPEL
GALAMORO : Riwruok mar JOLUO e Piny Ngima, orwaku uduto mondo ubed e kanyakla mar burani. Ornwa nyingi gi nondi kaka obedo. Riwruok e teko joka Nyanam.