Citizen TV anchor Jeff Koinange has recounted how his friend, who also worked as a journalist, got shot dead in the line of duty.
In an exclusive interview with Kenyans.co.ke in November 2019, the outspoken anchor narrated that his friend, Myles Tierney, succumbed after being shot six times in the head in Sierra Leone in 1999.
The journalist was giving pieces of advice to upcoming journalists on important tips about the field where he highlighted that no story was worth dying for.
According to a report by CNN, an organisation that Koinange worked for, the incident was the first where Koinange came face to face with child soldiers.
"That day, in Siera Leone, a good friend of mine got shot and killed. He had six bullets in his head from an AK 47.
"They called his friends, they called his company and it was big news in the first 24 hours. 36 hours later, the world had moved on. A year later, no one even remembered his name... So no story is worth dying for," he advised.
In a recount of the fateful day's events published by CNN, the anchor narrated that Tierney's car was shot at by the child soldiers while they were covering the region for Reuters.
Koinange had, five minutes before the shootout, rushed back to his hotel room to send images to Reuters head office.
"Myles Tierney was a journalist and friend who had been covering the brutal and intense fighting in Sierra Leone in 1999. He was killed when child soldiers opened fire on the vehicle he was travelling in. I had been in the same convoy. But about five minutes before that fateful moment I had gone back to my hotel room to transmit pictures to Reuters Television headquarters in London.
"I'm haunted by questions I've never been able to answer: What if I'd been there? What would I have done? Would I be alive today?" he posed.
In the sit-down with Kenyans.co.ke, the anchor also pointed out that a journalist was as good as there last story as well as no one should jump into the career for money.
Below is a video of the anchor's narration:
