MMK's K24 Television Review
Eliud Abongo
The Founder and CEO of Mama Maria Kenya and the Mama Maria Clinics, Peter Kithene, made headlines in Kenyan media last week as the youngest brand of Kenyan youth, who has developed a workable and implementable means of offering medical services to the poor in the Kenyan rural set-up.
Kithene who is on a three-month working holiday in his native Kenya, was interviewed on a 45-minute television talk show on one of Kenya's hottest urban television stations, K24 Broadcasting, in the capital of Nairobi.
The show, hosted by former veteran CNN international reporter, Jeff Koinange, featured the top ten Kenyans under the age of 30 identified countrywide for their exemplary services in the areas of community development, social life, entrepreneurship, and healthcare.
Kithene, who has been hard to find due to his engagements with his organization's affairs in the United States, was the big catch for K24, and his interview was watched by more than three million residents of Nairobi and its environs.
Appearing for the first time before a Kenyan TV audience, Kithene was humbled and surprised that the host of the program knew a great deal of information about his life outside America and back at home, particularly concerning his work creating the Mama Maria Clinics. During the show, Kithene discussed how amazing it is to be crowned with honors in a foreign country when he revisited how he won the CNN Hero Award in United States. He encouraged Kenyans to adopt a spirit of not giving up when pursuing their dreams saying, "Small people like me are the people who will shape the 21st century into a modern society [here in Kenya]."
Kithene let his countrymen know he is working very hard and will knock on every door of opportunity if that's what will make affordable medical services available to Kenyans, and Africans in general. After the show, the streets of Nairobi appeared too narrow for Kithene - much to his surprise - as people who met him on the street called after him with the nickname, daktari, or "doctor" in Swahili.
Shortly after this appearance, Kithene was scheduled for a second television talk show - which was cancelled last-minute when all stations in Kenyan decided to televise live the official visit of Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State. The much awaited and talked about show has now been rescheduled to next week, to be hosted by Kenyan TV talk show veteran, Jimmy Gathu