EXCLUSIVE: Why Xtian Dela was fired from Kiss FM

You may not know this but controversial blogger Arthur Mandela, better known as Xtian Dela, no longer works at Kiss FM or any of the Radio Africa Group affiliates.

Dela, who was at one time a presenter at NRG Radio, joined Kiss FM sometime in June 2019 alongside Kamene Goro and Andrew Kibe.

Xtian Dela

His role was to produce the station’s breakfast show whose ratings had really taken a beating after Shaffie Weru and Adelle Onyango left.

Understandably, it’s Kamene and Kibe who vouched for him to produce the show because they had worked with him at NRG Radio where he would occasionally join them to discuss various topics on their breakfast show.

Cluelessness

Although Xtian had a short stint on radio, he had never really worked as a producer and as you may know, this is a different ball game because you have to conceptualize a 4-hour show from Monday to Friday.

Kiss FM is not just any station. It is one of the leading urban stations in Kenya with a good listenership and that means there is no time for trial and error and learning on the job, you have to hit the ground running.

So here comes Xtian who has no background whatsoever in producing a radio show and he is given this big role and he does not know how to go about it. What happens next? Your guess is as good as mine.

The Group Programs Controller at Radio Africa is an Australian national by the name Pete Sinclair and people who know him claim that he does not tolerate nonsense and mediocrity.

Sooner or later, he began to notice that Xtian Dela didn’t have a clue on how to conceptualize topics for Kamene and Kibe and the ratings were really declining so he took up the job of producing the breakfast show himself.

Pete Sinclair

Adios, bro

Although Xtian kept working at the station, even without having a specific role, they had to let go of him earlier this year because they saw no point of paying him a salary of about Ksh. 250,000 for doing nothing.

About this writer:

Brian Onyango