Brains behind ‘Why? asks Joe Kadhi’, media guru and trainer bows out for good

At the old Nation House on Tom Mboya Street in downtown Nairobi, perhaps the best journalism in the whole of East and Central Africa, if not the entire African continent, was brewed from the early 1960s. Among the major contributors was a man called Joe Kadhi, a consummate professional.

He was always smartly dressed, cutting a totally different image from the unkempt practitioner, who was looked down upon by society, but had sadly become synonymous with the profession then. The man was a sharp dresser, who often wore white shirts with cufflinks.

Besides the impeccable grasp of English, in which he plied his trade, he spoke home-grown Kiswahili, thanks to his coastal ancestry, and he enjoyed telling jokes. He was not just a journalism guru with lots of anecdotes picked up along the tough journey, but was also a good trainer.

Well, that gentleman in the well-tailored suits and a kisibau (waistcoat) to boot passed away on Wednesday, June 29, in Nairobi, where he had been admitted to hospital for some time. His family said Joe, who had been sickly in his advanced age, would be buried on Thursday (yesterday), in line with his Muslim faith.

 Joe Kadhi has been in poor health in recent years, since he retired as a journalism lecturer.

Political issues

Many older Kenyans remember him as the man behind the then hard-hitting Sunday Nation column, titled ‘Why? asks Joe Kadhi’, which he wrote from the 1960s well into the 1980s. His column on the Editorial Page had his pencil-drawn portrait embedded in a big question mark. In it, he tackled every week the pressing socio-economic and political issues of the time. For some 10 years, he was the managing editor of the Daily Nation until the early 1990s, when he went into full-time media training.

Because of the name Joe, many thought he was a Christian. He was, in fact, a Muslim, who was also known as Said Mohamed, hence the initials SM between Joe and Kadhi. He wrote his weekly column, in a forceful style, but was quite respectful. He never traded insults. The eloquent journalist was in his element in in-house training in those early days, when it all happened in the newsroom. Every time I see a flip chat, even today, I remember Joe, whom some people have described as the “godfather of print media”.

My first contact with Joe Kadhi was when I turned up in March 1983 at Nation House for an interview as a fresh graduate of Literature and Political Science. He was on the panel chaired by then Editor-in-Chief and current NMG public editor Peter Mwaura. I could see from their reactions to my answers about my interest and aspirations that I had impressed them. It didn’t come as a surprise when I was hired as a cub reporter. I would then go on to work under him as a trainee reporter, still wet behind the ears, until I gained my foothold in the industry. I would later work with him as a part-time lecturer at the School of Journalism (SOJ) of the University of Nairobi.

On leaving the newsroom, Joe went full-time into training. After SOJ, he joined USIU-Africa.

The young people who went through his hands had an experience of a lifetime. He proudly spoke about the “nuts and bolts” of good writing and journalism while honing the skills of the young practitioners.

The bespectacled Joe was a perfect gentleman, and a good mentor. He never raised his voice, unlike other editors, who were always shouting at their juniors. I remember his little office in Nation House, the bakery that became the centre of journalistic excellence for several decades before the arrival of the imposing Nation Centre on the nearby Kimathi Street.

Joe was immensely proud of his Swahili heritage. He often told me about his Bajuni community at the coast. However, like his bosom friend George Mbugguss, they were linked to the sprawling Muslim neighbourhood of Majengo, Nairobi, made up mainly of iron sheet mud-walled structures, where they grew up. As a Nairobi lad, he had a good grasp of Kiswahili, because of his coastal roots, but would become one of the finest Kenyan writers in English.

Uphold press freedom

Joe will go down in the annals of Kenyan journalism history as one of the best media practitioners to grace the national stage. The crowning of his success as a media practitioner was the Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed on him during the 2015 Media Council's Annual Journalism Excellence Awards ceremony in Nairobi. Joe was fascinated by the need to promote and uphold press freedom and journalistic ethics

Before joining the Nation Newspapers in 1968, he had worked with several publications associated with the struggle for independence in the twilight of British colonial rule. He was then associated with the mercurial politician, trade unionist and later Cabinet minister Tom Mboya. Joe worked with Sauti ya Kanu, Mfanyi Kazi and Sauti ya Mwafrika. Later, he worked at the East African Standard, the oldest newspaper in the country founded in 1902.

He would later gain prominence after joining the Nation and as he became famous for his column, ‘Why? Asks Joe Kadhi’. The Sunday Nation column attracted a big following. It became a must-read for years.

The death of the retired journalist and media trainer is a big loss to the mainstream media, especially print, which he has served in the newsroom and out of it, as a reliable, versatile and exciting trainer, whose accounts of his own practice flavoured his training sessions.

Joe retired several years ago after giving valuable service to USIU-Africa, an institution that has distinguished itself for honing skills in reporting.

In his long career, he worked alongside such other great journalists as George Githii, Peter Mwaura, George Mbugguss, Philip Ochieng and Ali Hafidh. Whereas Githii as the Editor-in-Chief was a maverick, who caused big rifts with the owners and the government, Joe Kadhi was calm and collected and approached any challenges with a sober mind. His death, following those of Mbugguss and Ochieng, has brought down the curtain on a generation that contributed immensely to the development of Kenya’s media, especially print.

The Mbugguss-Kadhi team had laid a solid foundation, upon which Wangethi Mwangi, who became the Group Editorial Director, and Joe Odindo, bringing a more youthful hue to the management of the leading media group in East and Central Africa, built upon.

He has done his bit and deserves his rest as others pick up the mantle of training new and practising journalists to improve their delivery and performance.

 Mr Agunda is a former ‘Daily Nation’ editor. [email protected]