By Ahmad Muto
Media personality and actress Malaika Nnyanzi has recounted her time as a presenter with Urban TV, detailing how she ended up on screen, the opportunity cost, the impact on the person she has turned out, and how her exit got her Googling ‘how to stop crying.’
According to her, when she returned from Kenya, where she worked as a front desk officer, did sales and accounting, all she wanted was to sit and interview people, but was rather unsuccessful with courting radio stations. However, when the opportunity came, it was a real test – she had to pick between a job at Coca-Cola and Urban TV, where she would be on probation first.
“I had applied at Coca-Cola. I was going to go into sales and make my mum proud, but they gave the job to a certain gentleman, offered him more money and I was second. They gave me my appointment letter, benefits, salary, and all. That very same day I got a call from Urban TV’s DJ Bush Baby (former station manager) who asked me to come through,” she said.
“He said, ‘a producer told me about you. So, if you want the job, you are going to come through on probation, no payment, no benefits. We want to see what you are good at.’ One, there was money on the table (Coca cola), but I chose Urban TV,” she added.
Nnyanzi noted that the station was very pivotal in her career, a stepping stone. The only thing she left without learning was sitting on a computer alone to edit videos.
“When got in, I said I was going to get as much as I can out of this place. I learnt a lot from there. I always asked how things were done. The only thing I left without knowing was how to edit videos myself, but could co-edit. I understood transitions, the timeline. I could produce, direct, be a show runner. I entered with the morning show, by the time I left, I was doing four shows,” she explained.
But, then she said, a day came when she got back from the field, ready to film her next show when the producer, Wandera Were, told her some changes had been made, she was to work more hours, her morning show was to start earlier, one other show was to become a daily, and she had to make up her mind real fast. Next thing she knew she had left, and three weeks later, it sank in, hit her so hard that she could not stop crying.
She was appearing on The Master Bus Podcast co-hosted by Steve keys and Benon Mugumbya.
