The Day Citizen TV’s Alex Chamwada’s Possessions Got Snapped Up in Auction
It’s common knowledge that if you’re working at Royal Media Services, especially Citizen TV, paying your bills shouldn’t be much of a hustle. However, it was a rude awakening for senior reporter, Alex Chamwada when a law court ordered his household items to be auctioned off to pay his debts which included defaulting to pay rent for an apartment in Kileleshwa.
Chamwada says,
“It was on 30th December the year 2000, around 8pm, when I ‘landed’ at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport via KLM, after a successful three-months internship at the Voice of America in Washington DC. I had gotten the internship as part of the benefits of Citizen Radio/TV’s affiliation to VOA.
But on arrival I had no house to go to, except my fiancé’s place in Donholm. The house where I was staying in Kileleshwa, had been locked and my belongings including a 14 inch colour TV, furniture, a gas cooker, clothes, books and a small radio/cassette player had been auctioned. But I guess the value of that property was not that much, maybe about 100,000 shillings then. That was my worth. I was broke on arrival at JKIA. Although VOA had sponsored the trip, back home there was no salary. In my pocket, I had only about 100 dollars.
I know you are already asking, why were my belongings auctioned? And why was I not on salary? I was among three employees who Royal Media Services that owns Citizen TV and Radio Citizen had rented apartments for at the Slopeside Apartments along ole Kejuado road in the posh Kileleshwa estate. Little did we know that the company had defaulted on rent for several months. I later learnt that by the time I was leaving for Washington DC in October 2000, there had already been several warnings to RMS to pay the rent arrears in vain. So the houses were locked in December. My colleagues who were present managed to salvage part of their properties, but all that belonged to me went! My brothers, Johnstone and Fredrick who I had left in the house, were thrown out. They went to stay with their friends elsewhere. But my fiance, who had been partly providing for their food continued to support them in that manner. She gave them moral support too. They were jobless, they were mere form four leavers, trying a few vibaruas (casual work) here and there. At that time Caroline was working with Kencell.
Let me take you back to the real story. From the airport, holding only one bag that contained my most important belongings like academic certificates, my next stop was Caroline’s place. She had come with her brother Edgar and Sister Issa in a taxi to pick me. And there we were! All crowded in her house. Our love blossomed. I was so touched at her humility and the caring heart to wards my brothers. She loved me for who I was. Six months later, we were exchanging vows. She is a gem from God.
Fast rewind. And you would ask, what was wrong with Chamwada’s employer to cause him all that pain? At that time, my employer was not doing well in terms of business. There had been frequent shut downs of Citizen Radio and TV by the Communications Commission of Kenya on alleged violation of broadcasting rules by Mr. S. K. Macharia, the owner of Royal Media Services. All this amid serious differences between former President Daniel arap Moi and Mr. Macharia.
In fact we were not getting our salaries by the time I was leaving for America. The real rough ride had just set in, contrary to my beginning at RMS. I remember when I joined the station in March 1999 after quitting the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, salary was coming our way regularly for several months. But life changed when the company ran into cash flow problems. It was really tough. Herman Igambi was our Editor-in-Chief then. My colleagues in this industry who went through this bumpy ride include Paul Ilado, Shaffie Weru and Caro Radull who are now at Radio Africa. Others are Beatrice Marshall, Anderson Waweru, Alice Kararu, Wairimu Ngure, Bernard Otieno, Rashid Ronald, Rita Tinina and Anne Ngugi, to name a few. Emmanuel Juma and Joe Ageyo also went through the tough times at RMS, but were lucky to be among the first ones to get jobs elsewhere before things worsened. They both were poached by KTN. Ikenye, Kararu, Tinina, Otieno and Rashid Ronald too later joined the Nation Media Group. Some of those who never left Citizen Radio/TV and are Waweru Mburu of the famous Yaliyotendeka programme, Mohammed Juma Njuguna, football commentator, Tom Mboya, head of electrical engineering, engineers Mwangi Njoroge and Charles Mithamo, Latifah Ngunjiri (now Citizen TV Production Manager) and Ben Muinde, Technical Director.
I remember during that bumpy ride, I would walk from Kileleshwa to Ambank House along the University Way next to Anniversary Towers where the station was originally situated. My fiancé would occasionally ‘sort’ me out with some pocket money. Yet I was the only ‘working’ person in our family. My parents were peasants and they depended on my input to help educate my nine siblings.”
