Thick Black Smoke Billowing from K24 Yet Again; Which Fire is There This Time?

In August, K24 shocked the media fraternity when the newly appointed General Manager in charge of broadcasting, Peter Opondo (formerly of Citizen TV) laid off at least 70 employees drawn from Milele FM, Kameme FM and K24. And now it appears the President Kenyatta-linked TV station is not out of the woods yet.

According to an insider who sought anonymity, K24 can only be likened to George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’. He laments that there is an unexplainable discrepancy in remuneration where there camera-persons who earn less than KSh50,000 while others take home over KSh150,000.

The mole goes on to decry the lack of expertise among the guys who were earlier in the year poached from other media houses. “They are so poor at camerawork, they can’t even shoot drama series,” he protests.

He also complains that the newbies are so full of themselves to the point of insulting their colleagues during shoots. Bearing that in mind, he also finds faults in the way the new guys are unfairly favoured, “Even their health insurance is different”, adding, “The new guys have both in and outpatient cover something that’s unheard of among the old-timers.”

He further alleges that old team which has 3 of the top cameramen in the country are considering decamping to Citizen TV as the leading TV station has been dangling the carrot for some time now. Conversely, the move will greatly dent K24 in terms of production.

The old-timers are even discriminated against when it comes to team-building. “The new guys were taken to the Coast where they allegedly splashed over KSh10 million”, he alleges adding, “Na sisi hata hatujawai kupelekwa apa tu Thika kuona Fourteen Falls.”

I don’t know what Mr. Opondo has to say about these allegations.