Beleaguered Standard Group editor in chief Ochieng Rapuro has asked a meeting with fellow female editors at the Mombasa Road based company after they accused him of being insensitive and fond of sexually harassing them.
The meeting organized by the human resource department was meant to hear and if possible iron out any issues the female editors and writers there have with Rapuro. It was initially slated for Wednesday January 26 but was pushed to Thursday January 27 after Rapuro suddenly found an excuse to attend another meeting at the CEO office.
Disappointed editors who had turned up for the meeting waited for the better part of the day in vain. HR boss Nicholas Siwatom who is not decided if to go for elections in Pokot called the meeting following complaints from the female staff Rapuro uses bad language on them and he is disrespectful to most workers.
He has badly addressed staff like Dr Mercy Korir, Najma Ismail and outgoing editor Roselyn Obala.
And after learning the issue had escalated he started calling and texting staff at the Amwik asking them not to write a complaint to the company over the said abuses. He has also reached out to top officials at Media Council of Kenya asking them not to react on any adverse reports coming from the news room, those aware revealed.
Rapuro who is also being described as bloodthirsty on staff members has caused huge exodus from the company leaving a massive hole that would take ages to fill. He boasts that he is out to weed out lazy staff there.
This has led to disagreements and exodus. His language landed him in trouble and is the reason the meeting was called. His actions have caused exodus leaving the company with rookies.
Most senior staff who have remained have been allocated positions there as either editors or sub editors under the guise of convergence that has refused to pick up.
Some of the top editors who exited after differing with Rapuro inclined Dennis Galava, Julius Mokaya, Ben Kitili, Kagure Gacheche, Linda Ogutu, Robin Toskin, and several other reporters. This has left a huge gap ahead of the polls. Most staff accuse Rapuro of malice and witch-hunt.
