Nation media group is the big brother in the media industry just like Safaricom PLC is the big man in the telecom industry.
Nation newspaper attracts a bigger chunk of Kenyan readers as compared to other newspapers.
Around 2011, I had a short stint working as a newspaper distributor in Nairobi. As early as 5am, other newspaper vendors and I would throng the Nation Centre for our daily pick-ups.Many newspaper distributors would request for a bigger bunch of Daily Nation newspaper as compared to other brand of newspapers.
This is because many Kenyans preferred buying the Daily Nation and by 3pm, all the copies would have run out of stock.
Thingsare, however, not all rosy for the biggest media house at the moment.
Problem started when the government shut down media houses for airing the January 30th swearing-in of the people’s president Raila Odinga.
NTV general manager Linus Kaikai condemned the shutdown but his remarks did not go well with state officials. The police threatened to arrest him and two other NTV journalists, Larry Madowo and Ken Mijungu.
At one point they had to spend the night at Nation centre for fear of arrest. Their reprieve came when the High Court granted them an anticipatory bail of Kshs 100,000 each.
A few days after this incident, Journalist Larry Madowo resigned as a columnist after his article was not published in the Daily Nation.
He later got the same article published in the CNN.Since then, he has gone underground and we hear less of him nowadays.
The latest blow to NMG came recently when NTV general manager Linus Kaikai resigned.
Many people are questioning these strange happenings at NMG. Is the biggest media house in the country headed south? Only time will tell.