Flamboyant Nation Media Group’s health reporter Leon Lidigu has been let go by his employer in what is likely a sack. Lidigu had become synonymous with the Social Heal Authority (SHA) reporting and constantly got under the skin of top government officials at the department with his hard-hitting questions on this medical insurance plan.
“Dear colleagues, for the last five years, it has been nothing but an immense privilege to learn from you, worth you, and grow,” Lidigu said in a note. An award-winning scribe, he thanked “my mentors Alex Ndegwa, Harry Misiko, adn Jane Njoroge, who took me in when I left campus, believed in me, and held my hand all the way.”
On SHA, he kept exposing one scandal after another, leading to altercations, both in the newsroom and outside, where sources including top government officials suggested that he should be shown the door.
When his editors recalled one of his articles on August 27, 2025 for “editorial review”, Dr Oluma Oluga, the Medical Services principal secretary in the Kenya government, reacted that “it is not enough for @NationAfrica to pull down their misleading article.” And he revealed what he wanted done: “Please take action on the journalists and editors who deliberately misreported.” The media house had published a story on the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) that claimed that the principal secraetry and the minister, Aden Duale, had clashed.
Apart from health, he was already creating an unassailable niche in climate reporting and in the last couple of years, he had never missed the COP meetings.
Through his health and climate reporting Lidigu, who was at NMG for five years, had managed to climb onto some interesting rostrums as either a moderator, an emcee, or a panelist, where he enjoyed banter with industry experts and fellow journalists on the subject.
On his WhatsApp groups, especially those where journalists discuss everything under the sun, Lidigu’s name is a permanent fixture.
When word went out that he was no longer welcome at the Twin Towers, an alias for NMG’s Nation Centre headquarters in Nairobi, he got good social media mentions, where he was asked to waste no time but launch a podcast on health.
Lynn Ngugi, well known podcaster herself, said on X: “Let him start his own podcast on health and he won’t regret it.”
Omar Dake said on X: “There is a whole world out there, ready for a fearless reporter like him”.
