I Started With A Salary Of Ksh10,000 – Janet Mbugua Narrates Her Humble Beginnings

Getting the first job comes with a lot of expectations, and a big salary is one of the biggest wish for most young people is a big salary, big enough to accommodate ones wants and luxury.

However, for former Citizen TV presenter Janet Mbugua things were different, with her first job after high school offering her less than Ksh10,000.

In an interview with K24’s Betty Kyalo, Ms Mbugua revealed that her first job was out of passion, as she wanted to have a one-year gap before proceeding to college.

“I was in Mombasa in 2003, and my friend told me that there was a new radio station looking for presenters, and urged me to go and try it out, and so I went. It was known as Pulse FM,” she said.

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When she went for voice test, she was hired and told to report the next day, with a starting salary of Ksh10,000. However, during the interview, Mbugua revealed that things were not rosy as they seemed, since she was not paid for over three months.

She rose through the media ranks until she became a senior news presenter at Citizen TV, before she resigned in April 2017.

She says that one of the reasons she stopped working as a presenter was that her son, Huru could not recognize her, hence she needed more time to spend with him and concentrate on other matters.

However, before she resigned, she says she had other projects that could bring her income and see her sail through a period of two years comfortably without employment.

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“I was going through a lot when I decided to take a break. I was going through burnout. I also did not have a relationship with Huru. Yes, I would interact with him but the nanny did most of the stuff. There is a day I wanted to hug him but he turned away from me,” she said.

Currently, the 35-year-old runs her own YouTube channel where she shares her life with her fans, champions for the ‘Help A Child Reach 5’ campaign with Lifebuoy, Menstrual equality and is the founder of Inua Dada Foundation. Inua Dada organization ensures that primary school girls of menstruating age are receiving menstrual health management education and sanitary towels so that they can be able to attend and complete school successfully.

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