Leonard Mbotela, born in Mombasa in 1940, died in a Nairobi hospital after a broadcasting career spanning six decades.
Famous for his Je Huu ni Uungwana? programme, he played an unwitting role in Kenya's 1982 coup when rebels forced him to announce the overthrow of President Moi.
Veteran media personality and National Heroes Council member Leonard Mbotela has died. He was 84.
Mr Mbotela was one of the most influential voices in Kenyan radio, especially through his long-running ‘Je Hu Ni Ungwana?’ radio and television programme, died on Friday, February 7.
One of his sons, Jimmy, told Nation.Africa that the broadcaster died at the Nairobi Hospital.
Mr Mbotela’s unmistakable voice and command of the Kiswahili language kept Kenyans informed on many topics — from news to sports, even as lashed out at some of their pet peeves through the famous “Je, Huu ni Uungwana?” show that ran on the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) radio for years — and later aired on KBC TV. His football commentaries on radio also defined a vibrant era in the popular local sport.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga with veteran broadcaster Leonard Mambo Mbotela at the Nairobi Hospital.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
On Friday, President William Ruto eulogised him as “a gifted and powerful broadcaster whose alluring voice dominated our airwaves with his first-class football commentaries and the signature programme ‘Je, Huu Ni Ungwana?’”
Mr Mbotela was born at Lady Grigg Hospital in Mombasa on May 29, 1940 and was the firstborn in his family.
“I was named Leonard after the famous British missionary, Bishop Leonard Beecher. This missionary taught my father at Alliance High school in 1926,” he wrote in his 2023 autobiography Je, Huu ni Uungwana? A Memoir by Leonard Mambo Mbotela, which was exclusively serialised by the Nation.
In the foreword of the book, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi summarised Mr Mbotela’s story as “a Mombasa Freretown-born child who grew up in the larger Ukambani region, worked in Rift Valley, and got domiciled in Nairobi to thrill millions of listeners from Broadcasting House, Nairobi (The KBC headquarters)”.
Another foreword by Victor Lomaria, who at the time worked for the Kenya Literature Bureau, the book’s publishers, summarised his media journey: “A juggler of sorts, Mr Mbotela joined the broadcasting profession in 1963, the date of Kenya's Independence. He has been a football commentator, a news reader, an author, a Kiswahili teacher on radio and an astute advocate for order in the society through Je, Huu ni Uungwana? a production that was born in 1966. He has also participated in voiced adverts and worked as a commentator for the Presidential Press Service.”
Leonard Mambo Mbotela’s book, ‘Je, Huu Ni Uungwana.’
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Mr Mbotela wrote in his autobiography that journalism was the Alpha and Omega of his dreams.
“I just wanted to be a broadcaster. I could not see myself doing anything else besides working at a radio station. This was my dream. And I knew it was not impossible to achieve,” he said.
One of the key moments in Mr Mbotela’s life was that in 1982 he was forced by rebel soldiers to announce on national broadcaster Voice of Kenya (now KBC) radio that President Daniel arap Moi had been overthrown. The rebels, whose takeover attempts eventually failed, wanted to use Mr Mbotela’s credibility to gain public trust.
He brought out all the drama about August 1, 1982, which he said changed his life
“I was not scheduled to work. So, I promised my wife and children that I would take them out after attending the Sunday service at St Stephen’s ACK, Jogoo Road,” he wrote. “At 4am, early Sunday, when virtually everyone in my neighbourhood in Ngara Estate, Nairobi, was still asleep, I was rudely woken up by a loud bang on my bedroom window.”
He wrote that he was forced to dress up quickly by armed soldiers then transported to the VoK studios.
“I was quickly bundled into a military Land Rover and sandwiched by armed soldiers. The car was driven very fast and carelessly, often taking the wrong lane,” he wrote. “I was shocked to see the streets full of noisy soldiers. Most of them were visibly drunk, mainly from beer they had looted. They were walking around with beer bottles. Some students from the University of Nairobi, which is adjacent to VoK, had joined the melee. They were shouting ‘Power! Power! Power!’ I still had no idea what was going on.”
“In a few minutes, we arrived at the VoK. I was ordered to switch on the radio. Everything was moving so fast. The soldiers were shouting orders incessantly. “Fanya haraka ama nikupige risasi (Hurry up or else I will shoot you)!” one of them threatened me. And he looked serious. I knew anything could happen here. I panicked. I was bullied from all corners. Out of fear, my coordination became quite poor, but I managed to hurriedly do all that they ordered me to do. The team leader, who had come for me that morning, whom I later learned was Private Hezekiah Ochuka, handed me a piece of paper where he had scribbled a statement. ‘Announce this! Tell the nation that Ochuka is the new president of Kenya. Moi is no longer president,’ he ordered. That is when it dawned on me that these army men had just overthrown Moi’s government,” he wrote.
It took about two hours before the mutinous soldiers were flushed out by pro-government ones. Then a pro-government soldier, Mr Mbotela wrote, “ordered me to retract the earlier announcement and inform the public that Moi was still the President of Kenya and that coup plotters had been trounced.”
The events of that day made him a target of government operatives for a while.
“After the 1982 attempted coup in which I was taken to the VoK studio at gunpoint and ordered to announce President Moi’s removal, some people within the government never believed my innocence and still thought that I was in cahoots with the coup plotters. They were still convinced that I knew much more than I had told them and that I must have been aware of the rebel’s mission. They didn’t think that it was coincidental that I was picked to make the announcement,” he wrote in his book.
“I occasionally received phone calls, especially from security men, interrogating me for lengthy periods of time regarding what they termed as my ‘association with coup plotters.’ Any calls from State House or other government offices send shivers down my spine. I was scared,” he added.
Leonard Mambo Mbotela (right) with former President Daniel arap Moi.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
This changed the way of doing things at the national broadcaster.
“To forestall trouble, some of our bosses often consulted State House operatives on the news items we were about to air to ensure they didn’t run counter to the State House official position. These constant ‘consultations’ guaranteed one’s survival in the system. Our news content, for a long time, though we did not openly admit it, was always controlled by the government. After all, we were a state-owned media,” he wrote.
In 1984, Mr Mbotela was recruited into the Presidential Press Service (PPS) by its director Lee Njiru, who called the newsroom to inform him.
“At the PPS, I joined a team that comprised Salim Mohamed, Rashid Khamis and James Abila. Our work was to cover Presidential functions. I was given the position of commentator and producer. PPS operated from State House. Our work was prestigious but very tedious; it was also lucrative but very risky,” wrote Mr Mbotela.
Mr Njiru, speaking with Nation.Africa after learning of Mr Mbotela’s death, said he recruited him to strengthen the Kiswahili function in the President’s communication team.
“I’m saddened to learn of the death. As director of the Presidential Press Service, I recruited Mambo in order to strengthen Kiswahili broadcasting within the service. He contributed a lot. He made an immense contribution to the popularisation of President Moi’s programmes within the country and outside,” said Mr Njiru.
Mr Mbotela was married to Alice Mwikali, with whom they had three children: Ida, Jimmy, and George.
He traced his roots to the southern Africa country of Malawi.
“My great-grandfather, Mbotela Senior, hailed from the Yao Clan in Central Malawi. He was born among this clan in a year believed to be 1865,” he wrote in his autobiography.
His grandfather had been captured to be sold as a slave but was later freed and started life at the Kenyan coast.
“He gladly accepted the offer to settle in Mombasa. I’m sure he did not have an idea of how to travel back to Malawi. Furthermore, having been forcefully separated from his family – and traumatised in the process – it was better to be a free man in a foreign land than being sold as a slave in Europe,” he wrote.
He added: “However, I cannot claim to be a Yao because I was never born or brought up among them. I don’t know any relative there; and I have never lived with them. But that’s where my origin can be traced back to. None of my relatives ever attempted to trace our origins in Malawi.”
