Kin Kaliisa’s NBS in crisis as newsroom engine staff walk out in protest

By our reporter

There is a fall out at NBS as senior current affairs backroom staff throw in their towels.

We understand that NBS Live manager Chrismel Wasswa and his assistant Charles Ssendagire have quit in protest, citing losing confidence in the management of the television. Their resignation comes at the time the station’s most creative cameraman, Godfrey Badebye abandoned the station some months ago.

Wasswa is the latest resignation after he failed to agree with Kaliisa on his future at NBS. Wasswa, whose assistant Ssendagire had resigned a couple of weeks ago, came from NTV alongside Solomon Sserwanja who is now a freelance anchor at the station, as well as Rukh-Shana Namuyimba. The group buoyed the news team ahead of elections, and NBS became a flagship for live reporting.

However, it seems the glue to bind the team together has failed to last.

Ahead of 2016 elections, NBS entrepreneur Kin Kaliisa made a swoop at his competitor NTV Uganda, and took with him a number of key staff including producers, cameramen and journalists you see on the screen. His mission was simple; deprive your competitor key talent, and use it to build your own capacity to compete favourably. Honestly, Kin won on that objective and he has continuously hunted for talent from the Serena based television owned by the Nation Media Group, which he has turned into his training ground.

Unfortunately, the people he has fished from NTV, have failed to stay at the Kamwokya based station.

This website understands that Kin wanted to phase out the live broadcast desk, in changes to make the newsroom more seamless, by making Wasswa news director, a position he declined. Earlier, Badebye who worked well with people like Sserwanja had lost motivation to work when he saw his work was no longer meaningful. Wasswa, the manager who was seen as Kin’s blue-eyed boy, fell out with his boss when he resisted changes in the newsroom. He tendered in his resignation on Monday.

With the departure of Wasswa, Ssendagire and Badebye, shakes the confidence of the newsroom staff. This pokes holes in Kin’s dream team he had assembled to lead his “Command Centre” and gives his critics reason to doubt his commitment to developing journalism in the country and holding his forte as a station where journalism can blossom.