Citizen TV Refutes Claims of Neglecting Purity Mwambia After Speaking in Exile

Citizen TV has refuted claims that they had abandoned investigative journalist Purity Mwambia, who was forced into exile after uncovering corrupt police officers. 

In an interview with media outlets, a source from the Kilimani-based station stated that Mwambia was still associated with Royal Media Services (RMS). Furthermore, the award-winning journalist had denied assertions that the media house neglected her in the United States. However, no official comment from Mwambia could be obtained by the time of publication. 

The station clarified its position shortly after the journalist disclosed her situation and life in exile. During an event hosted by the US State Department on May 30, she revealed the hardships she has tolerated while in exile for two years. She did not specify if it was Citizen TV or another organization that had taken her to America but pointed out that they no longer supported her during her stay abroad.

“Personally, I was brought here by an organisation, and they dropped me. I am on the verge of being homeless because I don’t know what to do next. Every day when I walk past the metro and I see all those homeless people is one of those stories that, as a journalist, I would have wished to tell but I now I’m just walking like literally I’m in their shoes, not knowing what will happen next to me,” she stated. 

Mwambia left the nation in the wake of her investigative piece, Guns Galore, which sparked fatal warnings from corrupt authorities who were exposed to have rented their firearms to criminal gangs in the city. On May 2022, her expose earned her the Investigative Reporting Award at the Annual Journalism Excellence Awards (AJEA) hosted by the Media Council of Kenya (MCK).