Life and times of broadcaster Mambo Mbotela

By Peter Ochieng

Legendary broadcaster Leonard Mambo Mbotela is dead. According to his family, the veteran journalist died on Friday at about 9.30am aged 84.

Known for his “Jee Huu ni Ungwana” segment on the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) Radio and TV platforms, Mbotela had a long and distinguished career in the Kenyan media.

He connected well with audiences across generations, through his powerful voice. According to imdb.com, Mbotela was born in 1940 in Mombasa, Kenya, as the first of eight children, to James and Aida Mbotela.

His father was a teacher who taught in different schools, among them Shimo La Tewa High School and Kabianga High School, while his mother worked with the Maendeleo ya Wanawake organization.

History has it that Mbotelas have Malawian roots. Reports indicate that at the tail end of the slave trade, a ship carrying slaves captured from Malawi was cruising through the East African coast, headed for Europe to sell them.

Just as the trade decree came into effect, the British Navy intercepted the Arab slave ship in Mombasa, freeing all the slaves, including Mbotela's great-grandfather.

Leonard Mambo Mbotela yearned to be a broadcaster from childhood. He liked talking and interacting with people of all kinds. He completed his secondary education in 1962.

After he completed his secondary education at Kitui High School, Mbotela got a job in Nakuru as a trainee reporter with The Standard.

Later, he joined the Voice of Kenya (VOK) now Kenya Broadcasting Corporation in 1964. He created his signature program called “Je Huu ni Ungwana? in 1966, making it the longest program to ever run on Kenyan airwaves.

In 1967, he joined the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London for a one-year training. His iconic moment as a broadcaster was registered during the 1982 attempted coup.

During the attempt to overthrow the then president, the late Daniel Arap Moi, led by a Kenya Air Force private, Hezekiah Ochuka, Mbotela was captured and forced to announce on live radio and television that the country was under military control, and that the president had been overthrown.

With guns trained on his head, he did as instructed, his voice piercing through the ears of Kenyans who were still not aware of what was going on. The situation was then put under control by the General Service Unit (GSU) and later the regular Police led by Major General Mahamoud Mohamed.

Mbotela was then asked to go back to the microphone, this time to announce that the rebels had been crashed, and that the country was under the president's control.

He retired in 2022 as Kenya's longest-serving broadcaster, after being on air for, get this, 58 years. He is survived by wife and three children.