Veteran media personality Jimmy Gathu has opened up about how friends deserted him after he was retrenched from a renowned media house back in 2016.
Speaking during an interview with news anchor Betty Kyallo on Friday, June 18, 2025, Gathu recounted the events that unfolded following his job loss.
“It was around 2016 when we were informed by a certain company that we were no longer needed. The first envelope was mine. At that point, I had never been headhunted—and I had never been unemployed for 26 years,” Gathu said.
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He revealed that some people close to him who had stopped answering his calls or reaching out, including those he had previously helped with paying school fees for their children.
He added that if it were not for his children, he would have fallen into depression.
“When I got fired, my phone stopped ringing. Even the people I used to help pay off their debts vanished. If it weren’t for my kids, I would have sunk into depression,” he added.
Gathu also recalled a painful incident when a friend embarrassed him by showing a group of people a text message he had sent asking for financial assistance.
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At the same time, he offered advice to individuals in the public eye who may be going through similar struggles. He urged them to first accept their situation in order to move forward.
“The most important thing I tell people is that they need to accept that they’ve hit rock bottom. For me, there came a time when I accepted it—I said, ‘I’m Jimmy Gathu, and I admit that I’ve hit the ground. Now, I either stay down or rise again,’” he said.
Notable Career Achievements
Jimmy Gathu has had a media career spanning over 35 years, during which he has worn many hats, including TV and radio host, actor, corporate MC, producer, director, content developer, strategist, and talent manager and trainer.
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- Pioneer TV Producer – Instrumental in creating entertaining television shows for Kenya’s first commercial TV station, KTN, helping shape the industry in the 1990s.
- Radio Success – Played a key role in developing and launching the now-iconic Maina and King’ang’i breakfast show on Classic 105. As Programmes Controller, he helped move the show from obscurity to number two in just six months.
- Radio Station Rebrand – Relaunched and rebranded YFM to HOT96 under Royal Media Services, growing its monthly revenue from Ksh 800,000 to Ksh 5 million in one year.
- Youth Icon – Served as Coca-Cola Youth Personality from 1995 to 1998 due to his positive influence on youth culture in Kenya.
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