A leaked letter has exposed infighting within MediaMax Networks Limited - mostly between the staff and some of the top managers at the media house.
In a letter seen by Kenyans.co.ke on Friday, January 27, a section of the disgruntled staff lamented over what they termed as a toxic work environment.
In the four-page letter addressed to the Chair and the Board of Directors, the team alleged mistreatment and claimed that they were denied some basic labour rights, including getting legal off days to attend to their family emergencies.
Journalists and other employees at DSM Place expressed dissatisfaction with how the media station was run, revealing that some of their careers had gone down the drain.
"We as the staff of MediaMax Networks Limited write this letter with a lot of pain, cry and plea that you critically and humbly hear our voice of the sad affair of the running of this organisation," the letter dated Friday, January 20 read in part.
According to the open letter, the current leadership regime was deemed detrimental and affected the general performance. The aggrieved team members opined the alleged discrimination would taint the reputation of K24 TV, People Daily Newspaper, Emoo FM and Milele FM.
"We want to categorically say that we have not written this open letter to negotiate about our salaries. No, we want to be provided with a safe, respectable, non-intimidating and conducive working environment to see this organisation get to the next level," the letter added in part.
"We have taken this path to put forward our grievances without creating any unnecessary media attention because we value this organisation," it added.
MediaMax staff called for a leadership shake-up at the media station to address their grievances. They exposed some leaders of colluding with directors to jeopardise the employees.
"We acknowledge that business has been slow, but we are also aware and very sure that this is a very potential organisation if we can have a leader," the employees demanded.
However, Kenyans.co.ke efforts to reach MediaMax management over the leaked letter and the allegations raised proved futile. It is also not clear whether their demands were met by the media house's management team.
The accusation came amidst mass job losses in various media houses across the country. Nation Media Group and Standard Media were the most affected companies.
Besides struggling to retain staff, some media houses implemented salary cuts and changed business models to focus on digital-first news.
To curb job losses, the government and Media Council of Kenya (MCK) pledged to remit Ksh1.15 billion owed to media Houses by the state.
"I am pleased to inform you that the pending bills owed to media houses are being settled through the Government Advertising Agency (GAA), " ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo stated.
