Nairobi News

Media personalities Lofty Matambo and Frida Mwaka are set to make their respective debuts on NTV on Saturday.

The duo resigned from rival station KTN earlier this year so as to ‘pursue other interests’ only to land at their current workstation.

They are set to anchor prime-time news and also host a number of Swahili shows.

Matambo and Mwaka are considered among the finest Kiswahili presenters.

They are also credited with divorcing their celebrity status from their jobs and are tipped to enhance the Kiswahili section at NTV.

Mwaka started out as a show host on the now-defunct Kubamba Radio before joining the KTN in 2018 as a replacement for Mashirima Kapombe who had been poached by Citizen TV.

She was one of the contestants in the highly publicised The Presenter show on KTN but fell behind the 2015 winners Michelle Ngele and Jamal Gaddafi.

While appearing on The Trend on Friday, she confessed it was Lofty who helped her to be where she is today and her dream was to one day work with him.

“Lofty and I have been friends for 10 years now. He helped me beat 6,000 people during a TV reality show,” she said.

According to Lofty, the two met in Mombasa at a friend’s house. “When we met there it was a coincidence that there was an announcement that announcers were needed. The friend told her that if she wanted to ever be a presenter that she should hold my hand,” he said.

He advised her to audition for the show in Kiswahili rather than English.

“Lofty who did not even know me stood by me all the way, even the day I was traveling to Nairobi to audition for the show he was sending me scripts to read and even bought me airtime to keep practicing,” said Mwaka.

Matambo announced his exit at KTN in an emotional speech after anchoring the 7pm bulletin saying he joined KTN as an amateur, but he had grown in leaps and bounds over the years.

He had worked at KTN for the past seven and a half years and among others, hosted the Kimasomaso talk show in addition to anchoring prime-time TV news bulletins.

Matambo also hosted the Shangwe na Matambo, a Sunday morning show on Radio Maisha.

He says there is a reason why people are where they are and that he will never refuse to help anyone if he can because he was once helped by someone who gave him a chance.

What many people do not know is that Matambo is a qualified medical practitioner.

He’s treated patients for three years before quitting to join the media.

“I am Dr. Lofty Matambo, I can mix medicine and inject a patient. It was my dream to be a news anchor and that is the reason I am here today.”

About 8 years ago, he gave up a pensionable job to take up a 6 month contract for a TV show that was to air on KTN.