There’s a big difference between interviewing Prezzo, Vera Sidika and basically socialites in general, and politicians. Larry Madowo learnt this too late on Saturday, when Moses Kuria single-handedly ‘ended’ The Trend’s host career.
Madowo has the eloquence and confidence to get high profile guests, but fails badly on patience and emotional maturity.
His interview with Kuria started off well with the legislator telling us of his time at Pangani Police Station. However, a few minutes into the sit-down, it became apparent that Larry wanted to pin down Kuria. If Larry has watched any of Kuria’s past interviews, he should have known that the guy is actually very good at answering questions. Kuria strikes you as an intelligent guy when having a one on one conversation, something unexpected considering the reputation he has built. Pinning or tricking him in an interview is very unlikely.
Larry wanted Kuria to talk of his hate speech record. He repeatedly pointed out that the MP has 4 ongoing hate speech cases, on top of the numerous accusations. For a while Kuria let it slide but refused to go into the specifics of his record, opting to take a conciliatory approach. He however lost it when he looked at the misinformation on the TV screen lower third writing that magnified what Larry had been getting wrong. He told Larry to apologize for claiming that he has four instead of three ongoing court cases. He also pointed out that journalists should be trained, something that Madowo did not take very well.
Larry Madowo continued to pester him, telling him that the station had taken a lot of criticism for inviting him over. It was seen as an insinuation that they were doing him a favor by hosting him on a prime time show, something Kuria did not take lightly. The legislator reminded Larry that it was he (Larry) who insisted on having him over, even when Kuria thought of opting out due to public outcry.
The interview was very chaotic and I’m surprised NTV posted it on YouTube. Watch it below in case you missed.
