Godfrey Mwapembwa, better known to Kenyans and followers of his work around the world as GADO (pictured), talks of this moment with shades of disbelief on his face.
They seem to have endured the months between the November 2015 meeting between him and Nation Media Group’s Editor-In-Chief, Tom Mshindi, and our evening meeting early this March.
It is the disbelief, perhaps, of a man whose stature as an editorial cartoonist isn’t just renowned locally, but globally. Every few minutes, he returns to one
statement that perhaps sums up what feeling filled up that blankness he was
initially confronted by; betrayal. During
that meeting, GADO found out that the Nation Media Group would not be renewing his contract.“ It wasn’t that it happened – rather, how it all happened that I am disappointed in,” he says.
It’s hard not to see why GADO’s look back on what led to the end of one of the longest running editorial cartoon partnerships that the Nation has ever had would be wistful.GADO’s being pushed towards the exit of the Nation Media Group began on different dates, depending on who you speak to within the organization.
He tells me that some senior editors think that his fate was sealed in March of 2013, the month that the Jubilee Government was elected. Others, who wouldn’t speak on the record, think that the change of guard at the senior level of management had more to do with his exit than anything else. Specifically, Tom Mshindi’s alleged pedantic, almost over-bearing order that he sees every editorial cartoon before it goes to print.
Gado, umefanya kazi sehemu moja zaidi ya miaka ishirini, inatosha sana, natumaini umejiandaa kwa kazi mbadala au endelea na kazi hiyo hiyo lakini tafuta sehemu nyingine, au ujiajiri na anzisha gazeti lako la comics, mbona opportunities ni za kumwagwa
ReplyDelete