Janet Mbugua joins Citizen TV

Finally after months of speculation, it is finally confirmed- Janet Mbugua is joining Citizen TV.

Word has been ubiquitous that the beautiful former news anchor of KTN who was ‘poached’ by ETV (a South African based TV station) would be joining the Citizen TV.

Janet’s joining the station made news not because of her news reading skills- actually; there is nothing so special about Janet- the only thing that caught people’s attention and made her make entertainment headlines is because of her payslip.

It is said that her pay slip will be reading 803,000 shillings a month. An amount that has got many people’s tongues wagging.

I don’t know if you know anyone in the media circles that earn this much. I don’t myself. Okay, I know one, our own queen of radio, Caroline Mutoko. But Caroline’s salary only matches this if it’s inclusive of the too much work at Radio Africa Ltd as a marketing manager.

In some quarters, this is not so much money. In media, it is. Especially, if the camera men/women and dressers get an average of 50,000 or less.

It’s even worse in some stations that pay 15,000 a month while others don’t pay their staff for three months.

And it’s not just the 0.8 million that caught our attention, something else did. The in -excess of 4.5 million shillings paid to ETV to free Mbugua from her contract in South Africa.

You could be wondering who is Janet Mbugua? Well, Mbugua is 27-year-old Kenyan. She started off on radio as a mid-morning show host in 2003.

In 2005 she took a break from radio and pursued studies in Malaysia. In 2007, she came back to Kenya and worked in television as a travel show host promoting Kenya’s hidden resources.

In the same year, the gorgeous journalist’s talents were noticed and she moved from being the travel show host to reading the news in Nairobi for the Kenya Television Network (KTN), before leaving for South Africa in mid 2009 to join ETV. Today, well, you know that already. KTN? NTV? ETV? No, Citizen TV it is.

Back in 2008/09, KTN was the TV to watch. It was just not easy not to. What of Janet Mbugua, Lillian Muli (Citizen TV) and Esther Arunga in your living room every day? It was a world of bevy beauties.

All said and (un)done, the question is? Is it cheaper recruiting and developing talent or its easy just acquiring the already developed talent and paying more? Well, that is a question that can be well answered by S. K. Macharia.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Mbugua's salary, in actually sense, I am so happy for her. But if I didn't write this, how else would you have known?