The dreaded layoff that had been painfully anticipated at Standard Group Limited are reported to have commenced with tens of employees set to be adversely affected.

Insiders at the Mombasa Road-based media house have intimated to Swala Nyeti that the HR Department started issuing redundancy letters to affected staff members on Monday.

Tension is said to be the order of the day as the Standard Group management is said to be keeping the journalists and other employees in the dark on the decisions they have made.

It remains unclear how many employees of the media house will be sent home with the station blaming its current actions on struggling business and the struggling economy.

According to the insiders, a number of big earners will receive redundancy letters this and next week even as salaries of the demoralized employees were last remitted in October 2022.

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This comes even as reports indicate that TV 47, which is owned by Mt Kenya University founder Simon Gicharu, is executing a raid targeting big names on its choking Radio Maisha.

Swala Nyeti has learnt that the fast-growing TV47 has made lucrative offers to a number of the radio station’s top talents with a plan to deploy them to a new radio station he is launching soon.

A meeting of the Executive Committee and other heads of departments held at the SGL offices last week Monday failed to chat a clear path forward at the cash-strapped media.

Orlando Lyomu. PHOTO/COURTESY

The meeting came amid reports of a push for the resignation of Standard Group CEO Orlando Lyomu, who has reportedly been pushing for redundancies from mid-January.

Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) Secretary General Eric Oduor a fortnight ago called for a strike by the embattled employees terming the failure to pay them a violation of labour laws. 

Standard Group owns and operates KTN, KTN News, The Standard newspapers, Radio Maisha, The Nairobian, Standard Digital, Spice Fm, Vybes Radio among other platforms.

 Swala Nyeti will reveal the names of those affected by the Standard redundancies as well as the big names that are headed for TV47 once we get all the details. Watch this space.