Journalist Leonard Mambo Mbotela dies at 85

By Newsflash Reporter

Veteran and popular radio presenter Leonard Mambo Mbotela has passed on.

According to his family, the veteran journalist, known for his evergreen program Je, Huu ni Ungwana? died on Friday morning after a long-illness.

He was 85 years old.

“It is true, our dad has rested,” said a family source.

Mbotela was married to Alice Mwikali and they had three children: Aida Mbotela, Jimmy Mbotela and George Mbotela.

Je, Huu ni Ungwana? program aired on KBC Radio and TV.

He started the program in 1966.

Who was Leonard Mambo Mbotela?

Mbotela was born in Freetown, Mombasa. He is the first of eight children, to James and Aida Mbotela. Both parents are deceased.

His late father was a teacher who taught in different schools, among them are Shimo La Tewa High school, Kabianga High School and ended up retiring as an educational officer. The mother worked with Maendeleo ya Wanawake organization.

Career

After he completed his secondary education in 1962 at Kitui High School, Mbotela got a job in Nakuru as a training reporter with The Standard.

Later, he joined the Voice of Kenya (now Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) in 1964.

He created his signature programmed called Je, Huu ni Ungwana? in 1966 and continues to air on KBC radio to this day, making it the oldest in the industry.

It has been running for the last 55 years. In 1967, he went to the British Broadcasting Corporation in London for one year of journalist training.

In 1982, in an attempted coup to overthrow the then president Daniel Arap Moi, led by a Kenya Air Force private, Hezekiah Ochuka, Mbotela was captured and Forced to announce on live television that the country was under military control and that the president had been overthrown.

The situation was then put under control by the GSU and later the regular Police led by Major General Mahamoud Mohamed and Mbotela was asked to announce that the Rebels had been defeated and that the country was under the president’s control.

Mbotela retired in 2022 as Kenya’s longest-serving broadcaster. When he left the studio in 2022, he had been on air for 58 years.