The Mombasa Road-based media house revealed that Mwita’s resignation took effect on July 5, 2024
The Standard Group Limited has announced the resignation of veteran journalist Chaacha Mwita from its Board as a Non-Executive Director, a move that continues the mixture of a purge and exodus being witnessed at the century-old media house.
In a notice carried on The Standard Newspaper on Tuesday, August 13, the Mombasa Road-based media house revealed that Mwita’s resignation took effect on July 5, 2024.
“Pursuant to the provisions of Paragraph 10 of the Thirteenth Schedule of The Capital Markets (Public Offers, Listings, and Disclosures) Regulations, 2023, the Board of Directors of The Standard Group PLC (“the Company”) wishes to notify its shareholders and the general public of the resignation of Mr Chaacha Mwita, as an Independent/Non-Executive Director of the Company, with effect from 5th July 2024,” announced Company Secretary Victoria Cherotich in the notice dated August 9, 2024.
Photo of veteran journalist Chaacha Mwita. /STANDARD DIGITAL
Mwita was on July 4, 2023, appointed to the Board, bringing with him vast experience in leadership, media and communication management, as well as policy engagement consultancy.
During his tenure, he served as the Chairperson of the Editorial Committee and a member of the Finance & Audit Committee and the Transformation Committee.
“The Board takes this opportunity to thank Mr Mwita for his commitment and invaluable contribution to the Company and wish him the best in his future endeavours,” the notice added.
Mwita has over 15 years’ integrated international experience in Executive Management and Board relations; as well as research translation and advocacy.
Standard Group at the time hailed his efforts which were focused on connecting African journalists, scientists, policymakers and civil society organisations, to best help shape the news agenda for policy, practice and development.
Throughout his career, Mwita has also conducted in-depth media assessments in Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Uganda.
Additionally, he worked in leadership roles at the Nation Media Group PLC, The Standard Group PLC, the Aga Khan Foundation, the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), and the Thomson Foundation (London, UK).
He also served on the Boards of the Inter-Region Economic Network (IREN-Kenya) and Ewaso Nyiro South Development Authority (ENSDA) and Co-Secretary of the Africa Means Business Advisory Panel.
Mwita graduated with a Bachelor of Education (Arts) degree from the University of Nairobi in 1996. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Mass Communication from the University of Nairobi’s School of Journalism and an MBA from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, with Executive Development stints at the Haas School of Business (the University of California at Berkeley, USA), and the University of Luxembourg.
A published author, Mwita is a former Fanning Fellow for Journalism at the Kettering Foundation, Dayton, Ohio, USA.
Unpaid Employees
Meanwhile, the woes at the media house giant continued and since its night announcement on July 30 revealing that over 300 employees would be declared redundant, it has been a troubling experience for those working at the media house.
Viral Tea has authoritatively learnt that staff at Standard Group have now gone unpaid for nine months, with a strike which was planned for last month halted on the back of the media house promising to pay them in August, a promise yet to be fulfilled.
Employees are now lamenting the situation, with many unable to move on with their lives as they cannot meet even basic necessities, calling for intervention from media stakeholders and other bodies. Correspondents in particular are reported to be working for 10 months without payments, with their pleas and requests falling on deaf ears.
“Many have already faced evictions, families disintegrated while others are currently starving.
“A company that is in communication but doesn’t take the opportunity to communicate leaves its people as bad communicators. When are correspondents getting their tokens…before kids continue sleeping hungry?” sources lamented to Viral Tea.
Earlier this month, and as we exclusively reported, Standard Group’s TV stations, most notably KTN News, went off air and were merged with KTN Home. Most of the KTN News employees have since been let go, except a few who have been absorbed by KTN Home in its various departments.
Logo of the defunct KTN News and KTN Home. /FILE
The closure of KTN News marked the beginning of a restructuring of the media company’s operations away from retrenching staff.
Cutting off KTN News, with other operations in radio and TV expected to follow, is hoped to make Standard leaner and agile enough to recover from its current financial mess. Other TV stations likely to be closed include KTN Burudani, with a focus also on the Spice FM and Vybez Radio stations.