To NTV’s Embarrasment

This past weekend was not short of high octane drama when one of the country’s leading television stations made a grave error.

In case you missed it, NTV had early Saturday 4th Feb 2012, reported that the ailing Njenga Karume had died. This was as reported by NTV journalist Albert Gachiri in a thickening plot where editors at  the mega-media house are believed to have began playing the blame game on who was responsible.

Kenyan celebrities such as Daniel Ndambuki a.k.a Churchill, and scores of other distraught Kenyans had even began pouring their condolences to the Karume family as the news hit airwaves, stations and social media platforms.

KTN followed suit with some ‘breaking news’ about Karume’s death as even the global site, Wikipedia changed its definition of the prolific Kenyan politician with the by line:

(born 1929 – died 2012) though this was promptly deleted.

Some presenters however, such as KISS 100 FM’s Caroline Mutoko were cautious about how to handle and deliver the news. The radio mogul called Njenga’s daughter, Lucy Karume to confirm the report and clarrified on her Facebook page that the reports were false.

Even Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta was shocked by what was being spread in the public dome, writing;

“Having spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday in the company of Hon. Njenga Karume, who I found to be joyful and in good spirit, I am shocked  to be made aware this morning of rumors of his passing on. As a people, let us desist from engaging in hearsay and rumor mongering as this ultimately leads to anguish, fear and pain to all those involved. Let us ensure that the truth always prevails. I wish our old man a long life and a speedy recovery.”

NTV was quick to retract the FALSE report, stating on their Facebook page;

‘Earlier today, NTV reported on Twitter and Facebook that politician and businessman Njenga Karume had died. We have been reliably informed that this position in incorrect. The correct position is that he is bedridden and critically ill. We would like to apologise to Mr. Karume, his family, friends, associates and our audience for the incorrect information.’

As expected, this misinformation led to a thorough backlash from a cross section of Kenyans who scolded the station about their mistake. NTV however did what they could to salvage their image and even did a followup story on Karume’s health and how the family is coping. See the news story below.