On Tuesday, Citizen TV Anchor Yvonne Okwara had to resort to her vernacular to calm down an agitated caller during a live sports show, Viva Africa.
The caller, identified only as Christine had won Ksh 10,000 after answering questions posed to her by Mike Okinyi, another journalist.
The caller had failed to answer the maximum questions required to have won the amount, and another journalist Francis Gachuri stepped in for her. Gachuri managed to answer eight questions, thus winning the money on Christine’s behalf.
However, the Karen-based caller demanded that the journalists send her the money, to which Okinyi declined, insisting that she had to pick the money by herself on Wednesday. Christine declined to give in to their demands and she urged Yvonne to convince her fellow journalists to send the money.
“Christine, our daughter, let me speak to you in Luhya. You have to calm down. All of this money belongs to you. Gachuri will give it to you tomorrow. So look for fare and come to our studios tomorrow with your kids and then after that go back home with the blessings of Jesus Christ,” Yvonne spoke in Luhya amid laughter from the other journalists in the studio.
The caller, who was watching the show live, broke into laughter too and asked the anchor what time she was required to pick the money.
“Be at the studios by 1 pm. We do have your phone number, your full name. After you pick your money, you will go and buy milk for your children. This money will help you. It's not a joke,” Yvonne explained.
The other journalists were amazed at the anchor’s candid and fluent vernacular and some even chipped in trying to paraphrase some of the words they heard.
The caller had a hard time differentiating between two of the station's sports journalists Okinyi and Bernard Ndong.
“Christine, I am Mike and Bernard is in Cairo,” Mike cleared the situation as they signed off in Dholuo together with the caller.
“Today I have learned different vernacular languages,” Mukami Wambora joked.
Here is the video.
