Obituary:Veteran Journalist Jacob William Maunda dies in Kenya

Veteran media personality in Kenya Jacob William Maunda is dead. Jacob who was popularly dubbed as Jawima is said to have died of a heart attack on the  morning of Friday,August 17.

He was a song writer and labelled himself as soloist international. He was 62 years old by the time of his death. 

His profile reads, “In 1989 immediately after graduating with a Diploma in Journalism from the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication through a government scholarship, Maunda left  Kenya News Agency (KNA)  for  Voice of Kenya (VoK) now Kenya Broadcasting Corporation as a reporter-cum-newscaster for both radio and television.

He worked together with other veterans like Leonard Mambo Mbotela,Khamis Themor,Khadijah Ali Mohamed Juma Njuguna,the late Anne Ofula,John Obongo Junior and Anunda Sakwa among others.

He retired in 2001 at the age of 50 to concentrate fully on music.

Maunda also had a short stint as a lecturer at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication ( KIMC) in 2004, before quitting to join Mbaitu FM, a Kamba vernacular radio station. He was to leave the station for yet another Kamba station, Musyi FM - a vernacular radio station of Royal Media Services, as senior news anchor, editor and head of news department.”

He claimed that music to him was equal to journalism. Through music, he was able to communicate to society in the same manner he  did as a journalist.

additional reporting by  The Kenyan Daily Post