Veteran journalist Mutegi Njau has passed on. His family says he died on Thursday, June 27 evening around 7 pm.

The family says that it is currently in the process of arranging his funeral.

“Dad was a remarkable man whose generosity, sense of humor, and dedication to his career left a lasting impact on everyone he met. He was not only the cornerstone of our family but also a cherished figure in our community,” the family mourned Njau.

Njau is said to have experienced a stroke two weeks ago and has since been in intensive care.

David Makali, Njau’s co-host in Cheche show on Citizen TV, mourned him as a mentor to many in the industry.

ODM Director of Communications Philip Etale also mourned Njau, attributing his success in the media industry to him.

“He taught me the art of writing a good story. He taught me how to narrate events as captured in the field. When he joined the Royal Media Services, my colleagues and I were glad to have a man who had shaped the news writing skills of journalists at the Nation Media Group. One evening, after I had returned to the newsroom from the field, I banged my story which was the lead story on the order of news items. I handed it to him for editing and proofreading. To my shock, he cancelled the entire script with a red pen, and told me to redo it again. I went back to my computer, and rewrote the script. When I took it back to him, he picked his pair of glasses, wore them and started reading it. ‘Etale, now this is good. I think you guys had used to doing shoddy scripts. I will make you people good writers’,” he said.

Etale adds: “He had a hoarse voice and never shied away from telling you to your face that you are wrong. He once told a colleague of mine to his face after differing with him over an assignment that he had failed to capture to his satisfaction. ‘You must be ashamed of yourself. How could you miss the story to come and stand in front of me wearing like Kanda Bongoman and tell me that you arrived late for the function?’… that was Mr. Mutegi for you. A good team leader, a brilliant chap and an editor who made sure only good stuff was carried on news.”

Mr. Mutegi Njau was a senior editor with the Royal Media Services. He also doubled up as the in-house training editor and in charge of journalistic ethics and libel and defamation issues for the company.

Mutegi retired from the Nation Media Group in 2005 having worked there for 24 years. He participated in the Global Integrity project being the reporter for Kenya for two consecutive years.

He also took part in ICIJ’s Collateral Damage project and wrote the story for the East African region.

More to follow…