News around the newsroom

Last week, I made mention of The New Times super journo Ken Agutamba in one of my articles that happened to be about an American singer with arguably the longest name in the industry: Akon’s name is so looooong, you can’t be serious to expect me to write all of it here. Agutamba’s name somehow popped up as I and The New Times photographer Tim Kisambira sped back to office to file away the story after Akon’s press conference at the Kigali City Tower. Our driver Francis, all excited after setting his eyes on Akon for his very first time, had one important observation; he was convinced that the singer’s swag was not so different from that of Agutamba, a notion that I and Kisambira did not entirely dismiss. So I went on to write that the two share a close-fitting suited style and a slight forward bounce. While Ken’s slight forward bounce is gentle and rather corporate-ish, Akon’s bounce is almost rebellious –a peculiar mix of high end thug life and sleek business executive. That surprise smuggling-in of Ken’s name in an Akon story inevitably unleashed an onslaught of feedback and comments from Ken’s fans –yes, the dude has got quite some fan base: Was that a diss? A pat on the back? A salute? A jibe? Those are the questions for which Ken’s legion of fans wanted a swift answer from me. My answer to them seemed less-than-satisfactory: I told them that as a writer, my brief ends with throwing a spanner in the works, after which I simply sit back, unwind, and observe the aftermath. But if there is any lesson to be drawn from this, it is the fact that people out there still enjoy their juicy gossip about their favorite journos. You, reader, seem to like it when the journo, who is supposed to be the hunter (writing stories about people), now turns into the hunted. This is why from now on, I will spare no opportunity to slot in a line or two about your favorite journos, because who says that just because their hustle is writing about people, then they should be immune to the same? And in the interest of full disclosure, you may want to know why I had to pick out Ken Agutamba last week, and again now: Well, this is a dude who I secretly envy because while most of my journalistic assignments revolve around hunting for broke up-and-coming local musicians, Agutamba tends to roll with political and diplomatic royalty. The story is not any much different from another fellow scribe, Collins Mwai who is seated right here next to me as I type this. Mwai recently came out boldly and took a deeply mature personal decision which left him the envy of the entire newsroom. But I won’t elaborate further on his decision because y’all don’t pay me. Are you The New Times publications?

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News around the newsroom