Veteran journalist Leonard Mambo Mbotela is dead.
Mbotela died earlier to after being unwell for sometime as confirmed by his daughter in law Anne-Mbotela.
“It is true my father-in-law has passed on,” Anne confirmed to a local press.
Leonard leaves his wife Alice Mwikali whom they together had three children Aida Mbotela, Jimmy Mbotela and George Mbotela.
He rose to fame for his popular radio and TV program; “Je huu ni Ungwana?”Which aired in the national broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC).
The program was created in 1966 and aired for five decades.
The legendary journalist was born in 1948 in Freetown Mombasa and was a son to Aida and James Mbotela born in a family of eight.
In his early career as a journalist, Mbotela worked with Kenya Weekly News and later East African Standard before he joined the national broadcaster where he worked until his retirement.
In the 1982 attempted coup, Mbotela was forced at gunpoint to announce that Moi’s government had been overthrown before he was later called back to announce that it wasn’t true.
History indicates that at 6am of the said date, Ochuka and Okumu stormed Voice of Kenya (VOK) broadcasting studios (currently KBC Radio Taifa) and forced Mambo Mbotela to announce that the military had overthrown the government.
Over the years, Mbotela has always recounted the events that led to the moment he made the announcement that paint a grim picture of the horrific turn of events.
