Janet Mbugua opens up about her journey in Television and the major role former TV queen Ester Arunga played in it
Ever wondered how Janet Mbugua ended up being the hottest thing in Kenyan Television? Well, sit tight as I narrate it to you.
The year was 2007 and she was 23 at the time when Farida Karoney then working at KTN called her and informed her that she was going to make her first debut on television as a news anchor reading the late night news. Farida had just approved her screen tests and was satisfied she was ready for her big break.
Janet Mbugua on the other hand wasn’t…she wanted to continue living her life the way it was reading Pulse Magazine, watching MTV and having loads of fun. Updating Kenyans on pressing current affairs was not something she was particularly up beat about.
She however adjusted her sails as she calls them and went for it and 2 weeks later she had already gotten a hold of everything. This propelled her to cover the 2007 elections up until the peace accord which was signed in 2008 ripping the benefits of her good work by settling in as the main host for the Sunrise Live segment.
Here she would hone her skills and attract the attention of the big boys in TV. It was Ester Arunga who came bearing the good news that someone had asked them to apply for jobs at South Africa’s based E News Africa. They didn’t at the time as they were scheduled to join the 9PM news which was basically every news broadcaster’s dream.
Janet mbugua would however apply the job two months later and before she knew it she was a broadcast journalist in a new country with responsibilities and friends.
It was that opportunity that would set her up to be the best in her field and eventually lead to her coming back to Kenya as a valuable asset to Citizen TV.
All these intricate details first appeared on her blog and there is part tow of this coming, explaining how she settled it at Citizen and her experience in what we could term the biggest media station in Kenya.
