Ken Ngaruiya’s term as the Chief Executive Officer of Media Max Limited may have come to an end after his contract expired at the turn of the New Year.
Mediamax is the holding company for K24 and Kameme TV stations, Milele FM, Msenangu FM, Emoo FM, Mayian FM, Meru FM and the People Daily newspaper. The media house is associated with former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s family.
Mr Ngaruiya was appointed CEO in January 2021 after acting in the same position since June 2019 following the exit of Ian Fernandes. Prior to his appointment, Ngaruiya served the company for 10 years in various senior leadership roles, including as the Chief Operations Officer.
Ngaruiya, an accountant and a first-class graduate in commerce (accounting) from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa has over 23 years’ experience in the media, advertising and manufacturing industries.
Ngaruiya has served in various capacities including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Finance Officer at Mediamax. He has also served as COO Crown Solutions Ltd (Gases) & CFO Red Sky Ltd.
His contract as CEO was supposed to run for three years which ended at the turn on the new year. The board is yet to sit down and make a decision on whether to give Ngaruya another contract or to find a suitable replacement.
Although he eventually made a come back, employees at the organisation later wrote a letter to the board asking for Ngaruiya to be fired.
“In the last three years, the journey in this organization has been the worst in history since inception,” said the letter. “We have been subjected to humiliations, frustrations and lack of respect and a lot of pain to our families by the CEO. He is the one who has put a lot of careers in the drain for his own selfish interest.”
“We have a junior staff getting better pay than senior staff. Majority are on half salary but a few, in selected sections, are on full pay,” said the letter.
A quick spotcheck shows that employees at Mediamax remain on half pay which was imposed when Covid 19 struck in 2020 to help the company navigate the hard times. Mediamax is the only media house that is yet to reinstate full salaries as Nation Media Group, Standard Group, Royal Media Services and Radio Africa Group reverted to full pay soon after Covid-19 was contained
