Victor Kinuthia, a reporter at Inooro TV, a 24-hour Kikuyu vernacular station owned by Royal Media Services, is now becoming the epitome of grit in the journalism industry.
Kinuthia hit the headlines on Monday after his show of bravery during the live coverage of the arrest of Kiharu MP, Ndindi Nyoro, in Murang’a county.
Kinuthia, who seemed to be struggling with the queen’s language during the live reporting aired Citizen TV, had been condemned and praised by many in equal measures.
However, Nyoro became the latest to express his opinion on Kinuthia’s way of reporting.
While appearing on Citizen TV News Night show on Tuesday evening, Nyoro commended Victor for the good job he does, terming him as one of the best vernacular reporters in the country.
Nyoro admitted that he also sometimes gets a lot of backlashes while using the English language to express himself.
While commending Victor as one of the best vernacular reporters in the country, Nyoro observed that everybody should be proud of where they come from and especially their identities.
“Victor Kinuthia is my constituent in Kiharu and many times I appear on such a show when we are using vernacular language and I also get a lot of backlash…unaongea Kizungu inakaa Kikuyu…but I can’t change who I am….we must be proud of our identities and where we come from….so I want to tell Victor he is one of the best vernacular reporters on Inooro TV…..he was just holding brief the other side,” he stated.
Ndindi Nyoro’s message to Royal Media’s Victor Kinuthia #NewsNight pic.twitter.com/Jgaaw10LGt
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) September 10, 2019
Nyoro added that Kenyans should encourage each other and stop ridiculing one another due to slight mistakes. His message was echoed by his host, Hussein Mohamed, who insisted that the royal media services were all proud of Kinuthia.
“We are all proud of him as the Royal Media Services. He has done a brilliant job at Inooro TV and the radio. He also does well when reporting for Citizen radio in the morning,” asserted Hussein.
Kinuthia’s footage went viral and on Tuesday, he received an unexpected call from BBC World Service radio in London, which interviewed him on why he had been trending for the better part of the day.
“I almost gave up when I found myself trending all over after yesterday’s 9 pm news,” expressed Kinuthia.
However, in an unexpected turn of events, his phone started blowing up with calls from colleagues at RMS and other media stations, as well as family and friends encouraging him.