Celebrated NTV news anchor Larry Madowo was on Wednesday dealt a major blow by his employer Nation Media Group (NMG), days after his controversial opinion piece on Interior and Coordination Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i.
In a tweet, Mr. Madowo disclosed that the Daily Nation, a paper published by the Aga Khan-owned media house, refused to publish his opinion piece on his FrontRow column.
The outspoken journalist noted that it was the first time in nearly four years that such a thing happened during his employment at NMG.
“This week, the refused to print my column for the first time in nearly 4 years,” he tweeted.
Though the Daily Nation refused to publish Madowo’s Wednesday opinion piece titled: Why it's a perilous time to be a journalist in Kenya, International Media company CNN took up the article and published it.
“The irony aside, the same piece is now published on CNN,” he said.
Police hunted us down
In the piece, Madowo speaks of how he spent the night at his office after plain clothed police officers camped outside NMG’s building along Kimathi street with the intention of arresting him NTV Managing Editor Linus Kaikai and anchor Ken Mijungu.
The trio was being hunted down by police for refusing to adhere to Government’s order not to broadcast the controversial swearing-in of NASA leader Raila Odinga as the People’s President.
“They had orders to arrest my colleagues Linus Kaikai who also chairs the Editors Guild, reporter Ken Mijungu and myself without a warrant which would have set a dangerous precedent.
"The next day, we had to sneak out into a safe house as our lawyers battled to keep us from getting detained,” Madowo mentions in his piece.
Scuffle with bosses
Before Odinga’s oath-taking Madowo entered into a scuffle with his bosses over media independence during an official meeting.
The NTV news anchor was particularly agitated that the company had not taken any meaningful action to protect Justus Wanga - a Nation reporter who faced threats from Deputy President William Ruto's press secretary David Mugonyi.
A source privy to the details of the meeting told Pulselive.co.ke that the management was also considering scrapping Madowo's column from the Daily Nation.