5 Kenyan Journalists Who Have Been Left Stranded Abroad

Left to right: former NTV journalist Yassin Juma, Citizen TV's Jamila Mohammed and Jeff Koinange.
Left to right: former NTV journalist Yassin Juma, Citizen TV's Jamila Mohammed and Jeff Koinange.
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In course of their jobs, journalists go through numerous challenges including running in with authorities and in some instances, they might find themselves stranded under difficult circumstances.

From being held hostage to getting locked in hotels, some journalists have found themselves in tricky situations while in foreign countries and unable to fly back home.

Here are five Kenyan journalists who have ever been stranded in foreign countries.

1. Jeff Koinange

Citizen TV anchor Jeff Koinange at RMS Studios in September 2019
Citizen TV anchor Jeff Koinange at RMS Studios in September 2019.
Photo
Jeff Koinange

Citizen TV anchor Jeff Koinange career has previously been dotted with hurdles including an instance in which he was abducted in Niger Delta.

In a 2014 interview, Koinange recalled a time he worked for CNN and took up a dangerous assignment involving Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) rebels.

Before taking up the challenge, the eloquent journalist revealed that he had done the research for a whole year and it involved calling the rebels in order to gain their trust.

The rogue group would always refuse Koinange's advances until one day. they granted him the rare chance. Koinange and his team met the rebels and embarked on another journey for an hour and a half by the use of a boat.

"These rebels came and picked us up. We drove into the creeks in the boat for about an hour and a half. While we were in the boat, these guys approached us on the other side and started shooting at us.

"They were fellow guys to these rebels but apparently they had not communicated that we were coming," narrated the anchor.

That was when Koinange had a premonition that they were going to die and so he instructed his cameraman to keep recording for footage that would be used as evidence.

2. Macharia Gaitho

Daily Nation columnist Macharia Gaitho
Daily Nation columnist Macharia Gaitho.
Twitter

The Nation columnist, in one of his columns, recounted a time he was left stranded in a Burkina Faso hotel while on assignment when a coup d’état broke out.

"From the lobby of the Palm Beach Hotel, a large number of journalists from across Africa — who are here to attend the International Festival for Freedom of Expression and Media — are stranded," he noted in the column.

He wrote that while they were stranded in the lobby, the soldiers were patrolling the streets and shooting in the air to disperse crowds.

"So we stick in the hotel and try to catch up on unfolding events by watching television and calling up friends," he added.

The team of scribes was left stranded in the hotel for a while since the country's leading TV station was not offering any updates on the tension that dominated the country's capital.

3. Yassin Juma

File image of independent Kenyan journalist and former NTV reporter Yassin Juma
File image of independent Kenyan journalist and former NTV reporter Yassin Juma
File

In July 2020, former NTV journalist Yassin Juma. was arrested and detained in Ethiopia by the country's military while covering massive protests that erupted in the Oromia Region, following the death of musician Hachalu Hundessa.

In the few months that followed, a diplomatic dispute ensued between officials of the two countries with several Kenyan government officials demanding his release.

Garissa MP Aden Duale was among the leaders who demanded Kenya's national government to provide details on his whereabouts while accusing the Ethiopian government of violating human rights by disregarding international judicial laws.

After push and pull, Juma was finally released in August 2020 and was at loggerheads with the Kenyan government over a decision to be flown back into the country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that he had opted to live in Ethiopia but Juma explained that he had been prevented from travelling back into the country.

"Kindly treat as misleading, pedestrian talk, reckless rumours and sensational reports that I chose to remain in Ethiopia with friends. I could not stay here after all that I went through. Furthermore, it compromises my security," he stated.

He revealed, at the time, that Ethiopia's Ministry of Health had imposed new travel regulations that required him to spend 14 days in house isolation before being issued with a Covid-19 status certificate.

4. Jamila Mohammed.

Citizen TV Managing Editor Jamila Mohammed in studio in 2019.
Citizen TV Managing Editor Jamila Mohammed in the studio in 2019.
Instagram

Citizen TV managing Editor Jamila Mohamed was in February trapped in a Canadian hotel together with his son following strict Covid-19 rules.

The two were forced to quarantine in different rooms after jetting into the country when her son got a scholarship and admission to a college in the Canadian town of Victoria.

Once they arrived at the hotel, they were directed to stay in separate rooms, not to have any contact due to the quarantine restrictions that restricted their movements for 14 days.

"I understood the precautions and why this had to happen but still, it was painful to hug him knowing that I would not be able to do it again for 14 days. We said goodbye and went into our separate but adjacent rooms.

"We talk on the phone 10 times or more every day. He is always calling to remind me to pick my meal outside the door. Or to discuss meals we are not familiar with," Jamila recounted.

5. Al Amin Kimathi

Former Nation journalist and activist Al-Amin Kimathi
Former Nation journalist and activist Al-Amin Kimathi.
Twitter

Former Nation journalist Al-Amin Kimathi languished in a Ugandan jail for a year since he was detained in 2010 over the 2010 Kampala World Cup bombing.

Kimathi had reportedly travelled to the country to advise people he said had been illegally extradited.

At the time, Kimathi worked as the head of the Muslim Human Rights Forum and accused both Kenya and Uganda of illegal rendition in which individuals were arrested in Kenya and transferred to Uganda.

His charges were dropped in 2011 alongside four other people after the Ugandan court lacked evidence to charge them.

Al Shabaab later claimed responsibility for the bombings which killed 76 people.

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