Citizen TV’s Joe Ageyo is expected to return to NTV as managing editor, in what will trigger changes at the Nation Media Group’s television station that independent surveys reveal was heading south.
Ageyo (pictured), who will be replaced at Citizen by Linus Kaikai, will likely take Joseph Warungu’s job at NTV. “Warungu, who is well respected internationally and is a suave man, a top media trainer, has however been struggling to give NTV a firm direction. While he did well at BBC Africa, NTV is a different ball game,” A Plain has been told.
The fate of Warungu is still unknown, but NMG, a listed media company, could easily find a new desk for the former BBC man who interviewed Who’s Who in various fields across the world.
In a statement, Citizen said Ageyo, who has been with the station for four years, was leaving “to pursue other interests. “I congratulate Linus on his appointment and wish him good luck in the execution of his new duties and responsibilities towards accomplishing the goals of the RMS [Royal Media Service],” managing director Wachira Waruru stated.
Observers say NTV had reached so low it required a turnaround, especially during electioneering, one of the seasons that give media houses sleepless nights and good money.
Sources close to NTV said the station’s political desk was rudderless with (senior) reporters claiming to head this non-existent desk.
A graduate of the University of Nairobi’s School of Journalism, where he did the one-year postgraduate diploma in journalism, Ageyo, the alumnus of Sawagongo Secondary School, cut his reporting teeth at Nation TV (NTV) with a high-pitched sign-off, setting him apart.
He holds a master of science degree in environmental governance from The University of Manchester and did a Fellowship at Aspen Institute on Environmental Leadership.
At Citizen, Ageyo presented News Gang, the Thursday evening current affairs media talk show, where he sat with Kaikai, the innovations director at the station, Yvone Okwara, Francis Gachuri, and the Kiswahili desk boss Jamila Mohammed.
With the quitting of Ageyo, the gang will have a big shoe to fill. Indeed, one Royal Media Service’s vernacular stations–Ramogi FM–has lost a regular panelist on its Monday news analysis programme — Kaka Wanene (The Way We See It).
Kaka Wanene, a Dholuo programme, has Ageyo, Charles Odhiambo, Joseph Bonyo (head of Ramogi TV), guest Roselyn Obala, and moderator Victor Otieno Juma.
Should he rejoin NTV, Ageyo is expected to poach talent from his former employers Citizen and NTV as media houses, editors, and producers flex muscles to shine in the coverage of the elections, the season of top sales for media houses that are struggling under the weight of thin advertising and bruising competition. Kenyans go to the polls on August 9.
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