Caption : Plagiarist in Chief Njoki Chege. The Journalist has now lost the little Credibility she has after being embroiled in a plagiarism scandal of the century. So Njoki Chege, is accused of plagiarism and has her public editor, Peter Mwaura do the damage control for her. The article in is one advising ladies to “..get a sponsor”. This by the way is highly immoral as Njoki Chege is basically telling ladies to prostitute themselves to older men. This is because in the Kenyan context a sponsor is an older man, who in exchange for sex -usually with younger ladies – buys them gifts and affords them a better lifestyle. Nonetheless, let us leave immorality aside and focus on the plagiarism accusation as defended by Peter Mwaura. Peter Mwaura bloviates quoting a Mr. Koech and finally admits that Ms. Chege plagiarized “a popular saying”. Earlier this week Stateside, Melania Trump was also accused of plagiarizing Michele Obama’s eight-year-old speech. Melania Trump delivered common words. But the common words had been delivered verbatim by Michele Obama many years earlier. So when Njoki Chege pens her words, ordering them exactly as they were ordered in an HBR article, then Cyprian Nyakundi “and his followers” can rightfully accuse her of plagiarism. The public editors response admits this. Further, Peter Mwaura mentions the word “original” in his article. Might I add that Njoki Chege’s column City Girl is may not be an original idea? I suspect it was lifted and slightly tweaked from London’s morning paper CITY A.M where Geraint Anderson wrote a similar column: City Boy. Finally, in today’s Kenya, the quickest way to get away with murder is to label your accusers as Haters. Peter Mwaura’s article seems to imply that Cyprian Nyakundi and his followers are haters. Well, to Cyprian Nyakundi’s defense and as one of his “followers”, I beg to differ. Mr. Mwaura, we are the good folk in this matter. We are actually on the side of angels. We want Njoki Chege to write better articles. That is why we highlight such shortcomings. As William Jefferson Clinton once said, “ Critics are our friends, they help us see our faults.” We ( and I’d guess that I speak for the majority of the so-called Nyakundi’s followers) believe that Cyprian Nyakundi’s was right, and therefore no apology is necessary from our side. We want that “haters” label retracted. And we suggest a good old handshake to bury this matter. NMG already has enough problems as it were, and would like to continue supporting your Newspapers and Stations instead of switching to competitors.
Sincerely, C.F