Kirigo Ng’arua, the former Citizen TV anchor, has opened up for the first time about her untimely exit from Royal Media Service, exactly a year later.
Ms Ng’arua joined the many thousand jobless Kenyans after she and other prominent names were axed from their high-paying jobs after the SK Macharia-owned media powerhouse rendered them redundant.
The TV star granted SDE the first interview since she was given the boot, in which she spoke candidly about her loss alongside other big names such as Terryanne Chebet and Abdi Osman.
“My lay-off came as a bit of a shock to me as I did not see myself leaving Citizen TV any time soon. Well, I knew that some people would be laid off but I did not give it much thought as I was focused on making myself better in my job,” she said.
“What I actually dreaded came to be a reality. In that shock, I wasn’t sure how to react. But there was no going back for me. I had to move forward.
“I have some of my relatives abroad and they invited me over to spend some time with them and I considered it a way for me to take my mind off things,” Kirigo said in her signature hoarse voice, I imagine.
She revealed that as she was travelling abroad, she happened to be on the same flight with a government official who was headed to the same destination and that is how ‘sponsor’ rumours started.
“From that, people started spreading rumours that I was dating a ‘sponsor’ and that he was taking me on holiday. It’s funny how people love to draw conclusions about an issue even before getting their facts right,” she says she decided to ignore the rumours until it died down.
She also denied the other rumour at the time that she had gotten a job abroad.
About her private life, Kirigo says she likes to keep her personal life just that, noting that she hardly exposes what should be personal which was evidenced by choosing not to answer whether she is dating.
“What I can say is that I appreciate men who respect women, men who can be faithful in a relationship. I also appreciate women who love their men, women who are secure and who need not change their men but rather make him the best version of himself,” the publication quoted Ng’arwa.
