Kiss TV’s Grace Msalame, Citizen TV’s Janet Mbugua, Lillian Muli and Julie Gichuru……….INDECENT ANCHORS (Philip’s article on DN)

  Last week, a letter which was apparently addressed to Citizen TV’s Janet Mbugua by a man named Opiyo went viral and although it seemed like a love letter; the letter ended up addressing the notorious issue of Kenyan female anchors who have been used by media houses to attract young viewers.

In his letter he indicated “regalia u (sic) embedded on ur (sic) body laminated your anatomy in a cohesive and jealous manner. It stalked your physique, tracing every contour that is depicted in your fauna...”

Yesterday, Philip Mwaniki of the daily nation brought to light the dress issue and attacked all the female news anchors including Citizen TV’s Lillian  Muli, Janet Mbugua, Julie Gichuru, KTN’s Linda Ogutu and Kiss TV’s Grace Msalame.

Read the article below:

Now, behind this hilarity is actually a hint that our female news anchors have crossed a line of what exactly is decent and trashy, what should be worn in the studio and at the club. I am forever seeing these female anchors dress in a manner to suggest that they are hitting the club immediately after, and I have met several wearing the same dress and make up.

I am all for freedom to wear what you want but I believe there should be a line. No, it was not my mother who forced me to write this or some other “old school” guys, I just believe that when it comes to News, content is king and that is what should draw one to listen and not what the anchor is wearing.

When breasts are literally holding on to dear life and just a sneeze will send them spilling out, I believe that a line has been crossed. When a parent cannot watch the News with their teenagers because all you can see are the anchor’s body contours, then, we have a problem.

It has got so bad that watching the News these days sparks fights at home when the man seems to be drooling over what Janet Mbugua, Ann Kiguta, Grace Msalame, Julie Gichuru or Lillian Muli are wearing.
What, do tell, do exposing your thighs have to do with Cord or Jubilee’s manifesto? What has a dress that leaves nothing to imagination got to do with Equity Bank’s profit margin and the price of milk?

Call it competition, I call it the “dumbing down of our news” and this is a dangerous precedent we are setting in this country. Yes, I am a straight red blooded male and such sights should have my tongue wagging, and they do; but after all is said and done, what does that achieve?

I thought brains come first and we should judge our newscasters - allow me to paraphrase Martin Luther King - not by the size of their boobs but the content of their gray matter.

Such dressing has no place in a newsroom where you are trying to analyse and shape the national agenda. The argument I get mostly is that they are dressed to attract the younger population into watching the news. That is the wrong way to go about it. Even they know that if they want to know what’s happening in the country, they know the news is where they will get it.

Do you see teachers dressed like that to attract kids to school? Such flawed thinking should be addressed. I am not suggesting they dress like my grandmother; they can still be stylish without necessarily being trashy.

Even CNN, where most news anchors get their inspiration from, has managed to control how their anchors dress and they are successful. They did not have to dress in a certain way to attract viewers from across the globe.

We know your dresses are expensive and you shop in Milan or wherever, just make sure when you visit our homes every night, you are not dressed like you will need some form of payment before you leave.