Johnson Mwakazi stares at joblessness as his employer goes broke

Martin Oduor

December 7, 2016 8:09 AM

Renowned journalist, Johnson Mwakazi, is staring at a possible joblessness as the media house he moved to has gone broke.

Fountain Media Group, the umbrella media house for WTV, has temporarily shut down its operations after it failed to meet the cost of running operations.

Employees at Fountain Media Group Ltd including Johnson Mwakazi, are all staring at a possible unemployment.

Mwakazi moved to Fountain Media in 2014; prior to his move, he used to host Power Breakfast Show at Citizen TV alongside Mutegi Njau.

Mwakazi was promoted to the post of Chief Executive Officer at Fountain Media Group Ltd to help stir WTV to success.

Inside sources tell Ghafla! Fountain Media Group Ltd has also been hit by the wave of media crisis that affected all major media houses; Nation Media Group, Standard Group, Royal Media etc.

Apparently Fountain Media Group’s investors, Fountain Enterprise Program (FEP), have failed to break even and have been forced to make drastic decisions that have affected employees at the media house.

The investors have failed to meet the costs of running operations; they have failed to pay Signet (a subsidiary of KBC) which distributes their digital frequencies prompting KBC to stop distributing their DTT signals. WTV has been off air since Friday 2 December.

Fountain Media management has also failed to meet the cost of other utilities like employees’ salaries and rent.

Ghafla! has also learnt that employees at Fountain Media haven’t been paid for the last three months. Inside sources further tells Ghafla! that Johnson Mwakazi has been disappointed by investors’ failure to meet the cost of running operations; the source told Ghafla! Mwakazi has been on and off work for the last one month.

The source also told Ghafla! that the management plans to get WTV back on air by January or March 2017. Apparently they want to downsize the workforce before they get back on air.

Martin Oduor