The Royal Media Services (RMS), which owns Citizen TV, has been forced to recall one of the journalists who was fired during a mass layoff late last year.
Patrick Mathangani, a veteran journalist who was a senior news editor for Citizen TV, will now go back as head of Citizen Extra – a news programme that the station has introduced in the run-up to the August 8 General Election.
The station is reported to be under pressure as the number of editors is less than what they need to effectively cover the election campaigns.
The programme, which started on Monday, will be airing on a daily basis between 9 am and 2pm.
Mathangani was shown the door in October last year in a move that saw 34 journalists, including celebrated news anchor Terryanne Chebet and editor Abdi Osman lose their jobs.
A week later, one of the senior editors at Citizen TV, Mercy Oburu, was recalled in circumstances that remain unclear.
Media houses have in the past year had to carry out massive layoffs as they seek to reorganise their business strategies to align with the industry trends.
The Nation Media Group, which is the largest media company in East and Central Africa, has in the past year fired more than 30 employees in what it termed as part of their, “reorganisation strategy”.
The Standard Group, Radio Africa Group, and Mediamax Network, the other dominant media conglomerates in Kenya, have also announced layoffs.
