Eric Njoka news Archives

10 Kenyan celebrity journalists who took to self-employment after years of working with giant media corporates

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Gloria Katunge

Cases of retrenchments and mass firings from local media conglomerates almost became the order of the day especially after Coronavirus hit.

It is no longer a new tale in the media industry, a lesson that majority of journalists have since learnt and taken steps on in the event that they face redundancy or even for those that already have.

Once bitten, twice shy. Media professionals have now opted for second, third sources of income to sustain their families and even for financial security. However, for those that opted out of the circle or were forced out by unforeseen circumstances, self-employment has become the route to take for them. Let’s get right through it.

1. Betty Kyallo

The sassy celebrity journalist has hopped several times in the media industry especially after her exit from her first home, KTN in 2018, to join rival station K24 where she exited in May 2020. Since then, Betty has been all about her beauty parlor business, Flair by Betty among other partnerships.

2. Maalika Kazia

Late August 2020, the young beauty called it quits at KTN where she had been for the last 2 years in what she termed a new step into a different chapter. The beauty is now into content creation on her YouTube channel ‘Maalika Kazia’ where she mainly talks about her personal life.

3. Eric Njoka

The former K24 news anchor who teamed up with Karen Knaust for the Weekend Edition, has made his major comeback with his own online talk show Centred set to kick off this Thursday.

Former K24 Editor and producer, Eric Njoka

4. Jacque Maribe

Maribe, after being surrounded with controversies in late 2018 while working at Citizen TV, bounced back in August 2020 with her online political show dubbed Hot Seat that has aired several episodes so far.

5. Janet Mbugua

The mother of 2 quit her plum job on Citizen TV’s Monday Special show as she went into maternity but never returned, where she soon after launched her book My First Time and has since been doing all sorts of gigs including running her enterprise Inua Dada.

6. Mwanaisha Chidzuga

Mwanaisha was among the team of professionals shown the door at K24 in late 2019 where she dropped her journalism cap to take up full-time catering which was her main profession and has since started her own online talk show The Dada2Dada Uncensored.

7. John Allan Namu

The popular investigative journalist resigned from KTN in 2015 after multiple frustrations, to start his own investigative documentary series Africa Uncensored.

8. Terryanne Chebet

Terry was fired from Royal Media Services owned TV station Citizen TV in 2016, a move that totally broke her down for months before fully taking up her business empire, Keyara organics, that she had founded in 2014. She however currently holds multiple power positions in different entities.

9. Asha Mwilu

Asha worked as special projects editor at Citizen TV before announcing her exit in May 2020 before unveiling her own media company dubbed Debunk, on July 1, 2020.

10. Nancy Onyancha and Joab Mwaura

The celebrity couple took up their media organization, Sauti Tajika as option B after being shown the door during K24 TV’s mass retrenchment in June 2020. Nancy however joined Switch TV in early July.

“Don’t keep me in your prayers!” Eric Njoka tells fans days after losing job at K24

Posted on June 5, 2020June 5, 2020 by Pauline Syombua

Since exiting K24, Eric Njoka has not been okay. Well, he even admitted to this in a post shared on his page where he confessed things on his side were not okay; but all in all he does not wish to be remembered in prayers.

Eric revealed this in a post shared on his instagram page where he left many worried about his current state. Njoka was unfortunately among the celebrated journalists who lost their jobs after K24 closed down.

Through his instagram page the journalist wrote;

Thank you all for your concerns, I am not fine and won’t be for a while but I will make sure to keep smiling. Peace and don’t keep me in any prayers, they don’t work.

According to Eric Njoka, prayers no longer work and will not be helping him in anyway considering his current state. Well, having been fired at a time like this has undeniably left many caught up in difficult situations.

The rant

However Njoka has refused to keep quiet as he recent went on a rant calling out his bosses for leaving him jobless; despite the sacrifices made to keep the channel alive even without pay!

Through his live session the Mr Njoka was heard saying;

I might have stretched it a little bit and said cruel things about the CEO and the Company; and for that I felt there is so much pressure and I’m pained. so I’m not going to apologize for speaking the truth. But I’m going to apologize for is mentioning the head of State, Company CEO, and the rest I stand by; because the company is frustrating us.

He went on to add conclude saying;

It’s frustrating so many people. Some many have families, and if someone is not going to speak for them then, where I go I will regret why I never spoke for them, I did speak for them, because people are real suffering and they can’t speak it out.

Betty Kyallo fired

Among those who were sent home is Betty Kyallo; however thing for seem to be continuing just fine as she now has enough time on her hands to run her saloon.

Drunk Eric Njoka curses out his critics during livestream (Video)

Posted on May 27, 2020May 27, 2020 by Gloria Katunge

K24 editor and producer Eric Njoka has come out guns blazing at his critics days after revealing the media station was closing shop.

The irked journalist went on an angry rant on his IG live, hurling curse words and blasting local publications for sniffing around his business.

He reportedly dismissed claims that the 24-hour media station was shutting down and retrenching all its staff in a couple of weeks.

Stop writing sh*t about me. Because I´ll be like, this guy or this woman wrote sh*t about me that is not right, that is not true.

Eric warned anyone meddling in his personal affairs that a time will come when they will have to face-off one-on-one and it might not end well.

If you wanna write stuff about me, go right ahead! I´ve given you the leeway but let´s meet here. I will deal with you right here! I am a one-man show. Bring it right to me and I´ll bring it right to you. Okay?

Also read: Betty Kyallo responds to getting fired from K24

Pretty irritated, the media personality said that it doesn´t quite bother him who goes ahead to spill it all to those above him, having worked day and night for years, to get to where he is.

A little tipsy and pretty high, the news anchor cautioned social media DCI to refrain from lighting a fire they can never put off because he just won´t let them.

I am an angry man and I´m not isolated. Tutadeal na wewe hapo nyuma ya tent. I know who I am and I know where I am at the moment. So if you want to come my way, kuja polepole. Anyway, Kenyans only think about themselves and no one else. I have come so so so far, to take sh*t from people. Just don´t cross my line.

Also read: Betty Kyallo turns to business amidst looming K24 shutdown

Sexuality

On a different note, the K24 producer had previously made headlines about his sexuality, with fans curious to know which position his gender liking stood at.

It was speculated he was gay, reports that never sat well with Eric who openly told off a troll to mind their own business because that is his personal life and nobody else´s.

During his online rant, he posed:

You ask me about my sexuality, itakusaidia na nini at the end of the day? If you ask someone about their life, what happens to your life? Does it change?

Amidst all this, a drunk Eric Njoka ended up making a fool of himself.

Here is a piece of his angry rant online:

K24 anchor Eric Njoka nearly conned Kes 850,000 while trying to buy a new car

Posted on February 13, 2018February 13, 2018 by Martin Oduor

Eric Njoka nearly fell for a scheme intended to defraud him of Kes 850,000. The K24 anchor was seeking to buy a new car when he met a conman who wanted to sell him nonexistent car.

Njoka wanted to buy a Toyota Mark X which the conman Gaspae Omondi Kwedho pretended he could sell him for Kes 850,000.

Gaspae together with other accomplices met Eric Njoka at DSM place to discuss the sale of the car on December 30th 2017. The K24 anchor later on realized he was being conned and he alerted the police before the deal could go through.

Court case

Gaspae Omondi was on Monday arraigned in court where he faced charges of attempting to defraud Eric Njoka of Kes 850,000 by pretending that he was in a position to sell him a car.

The conman denied the charges and was freed on a cash bail of Kes 200,000 or a bond of Kshs 500,000 with a surety of the same amount.

The matter will be mentioned on February 26th 2018 and heard on March 12, 2018.