Mr.Tiddo Mhando.
The new satellite channel to be based in Nairobi, will target viewers mainly in East Africa and Great Lakes regions, where majority are Swahili speakers. There are more than 150 million Swahili speakers in the two regions, but the channel will target a few millions at its launch.Mhando and Warungu are household names in the region and the only ones to have held senior editorial management jobs at the BBC headquarters in London. “Mhando and Warungu are top names in journalism from the region, their presence in Al Jazeera Swahili will be going to be a vote of confidence for the channel,” said a top official familiar with the plans.
Officials in the media giant said the reaction in East And Central Africa on the news about the launch of the Swahili channel "has been great."
At the top of his BBC career, Mhando was the head of the Swahili Service, while Warungu was leading English to Africa Service at the station, and directly responsible for flagship radio Focus on Africa programme and Focus on Africa Magazine. Mhando started his careers as a radio DJ at the government-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) in Dar es Salaam in early1980s. At the same times, he also reported for a number of broadcasters including Deutsche Welle, Voice of America and Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, known at that time as the Voice of Kenya.
Joseph Warungu (photo: BBC @ flickr)In 1985, he moved to BBC Swahili Service in Nairobi and 14 years later, he moved to London and became the first African to head the service, a job he excelled in. But he first gained his real field reputation during Kenya’s first multiparty elections in 1992 with his solid reporting and command of the language. Notably, Mhando interviewed all presidents in the East and Central Africa region.
In1990, Mhando fame reached its apex after he became the first journalist to report the disappearance and eventual death of the then Kenyan foreign minister, Dr Robert Ouko, and in January 2001 he was the last journalist to interview President Laurent Kabila of DR Congo. Their long and revealing discussion took place just weeks before his assassination.
In 2006, he retired from the BBC and joined TBC as the managing director, but four years later the government refused to renew his contract largely because of fallout with the politburo in the powerful ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi(Revolutionary Party) over TBC’s coverage of the 2010 elections.
On his part, Warungu, trained as high school Kiswahili teacher, worked his way up after working for government-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and private Kenya Television Network.
In 1992, he joined BBC Swahili Service and 11 years later, he was appointed the head of the station’s African Service, replacing legendary African hand Robin White.
On his appointment, he said: "This is one of the most challenging and responsible jobs in the whole of African journalism. More than 20 million listeners all over Africa rely on the BBC to keep them in touch with the continent. I intend to build on the formidable reputation which Robin White has established for both programmes, strengthening our reporting of Africa and our links with partner stations."
Warungu has toured dozens of countries, including reporting from South Africa upon the release of Nelson Mandela in 1991 and United States when Barack Obama won US presidential race as well as covering several warzones.
This is not the first time the Arab channel is employing experienced BBC hands. With closure of BBC Arabic service in the 1990s, more than 250 journalists switched to the newly created Al Jazeera. Its English service has also hired a couple from the BBC, including Mohamed Addow and Yvonne Ndege who report from east and west Africa respectively
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