A former Nation Media Group editor, Dan Otieno, has died following a road accident in Uthiru, Kiambu County.
A friend told People Daily that while driving in Uthiru he came upon an accident and stopped to offer help only to find that it was Otieno’s body lying on the road.
The accident occurred on Monday evening at about 9.30 pm on Waiyaki Way near the Uthiru stage.
Otieno was rushing home to beat the curfew time when he was involved in the hit-and-run.
Dagoretti OCPD Francis Wahome said that Otieno died on the spot and his body left lying on the road.
His death came on the same day that the media fraternity was mourning the passing of another scribe, Juma Aluoch, who was the Homa Bay County director of communication.
The police boss said that the vehicle that hit him has not yet been traced.
Otieno was working at a media consultancy firm associated with former NMG Editor-in-Chief Tom Mshindi.
He previously worked at NMG where he served as the Kisumu and Nyeru bureaus chief.
His death also comes as a shock to the media fraternity that has lost a number of budding and veteran journalists to road carnage, including Casper Waithaka, Raphael Nzioki, Christine Omulando, Anthony Kariuki and Ken Walibora.
NMG's Diversity Inclusion and Equity Editor, Verah Vashti Okeyo, who also serves as the Global Health Reporter, recounted on her social media platform how Otieno recommended her for employment when she turned at the Kisumu bureau armed with only her hand-written articles.
Below is Okeyo's full post on Otieno's impact on her career:
In 2012, I walked to Kisumu bureau Nation office and asked for internship. There was no opening. I took my handwritten articles and after skimming through them, Dan asked "do you have a place to live in Kisumu?"
I said no. When he heard I had my foster home in Nakuru, he called the bureau chief in Nakuru then, Muchemi Wachira and told him "I'm sending you a child over there to look after."
Dan gave me Sh 2,000 for fare to travel that very day to Nakuru. The next time I heard from him was four months later telling me he had seen my writing. "Stick to features, you'll earn more and I see it's your strength"
Even after he left Nation, Dan remained a very special person in my life because without that call that he made, I wouldn't have my career. He was my friend, a title I don't give people casually.
I got the news at midnight that Dan died, and it shocked me because it was a few minutes after chatting on WhatsApp about a trip we were to make on Wednesday. I called his number because I thought it was a joke, but it's true.
