Kenya’s media fraternity is set for a landmark celebration in September, when the Media Council of Kenya launches a new framework to honour the country’s veteran broadcasters.
The celebration will begin with the golden jubilee of Fred Obachi, who marks 50 years in the newsroom, alongside other veterans in the profession.
“This memorial will not be celebrating the past. It will be launching the future,” said MCK Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Omwoyo.
“As we celebrate, we are saying don’t go away with the brain. Let’s start discussing the welfare of veterans and utilise their brain,” he added.
Why MCK is celebrating veteran journalists?
Omwoyo said the framework marks a shift from brain drain to brain gain and commits MCK to making mentorship a regular part of professional life in newsrooms.
“Too many veterans in this profession have had their service long forgotten. When a profession honours its veterans, it tells them their work has worth and gives young people living proof that a career in the media is seen and remembered,” said Obachi.
Veterans across the industry echoed that sentiment. Lee Njiru, a veteran of Kenyan radio and television, said the knowledge built over decades in the newsroom should not be allowed to disappear.
“The knowledge of 50 years doesn’t retire when the broadcaster retires. I call upon my fellow veterans in radio and television to do the same. We either swim together or sink together,” Njiru said
Pamela Mburia, a veteran broadcaster who served at KBC and remains rooted in community radio, said the recognition was overdue. She has previously received a lifetime achiever media award, under MCK’s inaugural Annual Media Excellence Awards (AMEA 2026) and is also a member of the Association of Professional Broadcasters (APB).
“MCK did good to acknowledge the practising retired journalists with this award. This event will birth something the rest of the broadcasters can look up to, and recognise the contribution made to this country,” she said.
KEG President Zubeida Kananu said the initiative speaks to a wider gap in how the industry treats its own.
“The media is the only space where practitioners are forced to leave early. We want to partner with MCK to honour retired journalists and also address the challenges they face. We want to grow mentorship so that the media doesn’t die,” said Kananu.
With the framework now taking shape, the focus turns to September, when Kenya’s media fraternity will gather not just to look back, but to chart what comes next for the profession’s veterans. This will be during the Golden Celebration of Fifty Years in Broadcasting of legend Fred Obach Machoka.
