‘Africa Uncensored’ CEO John-Allan Namu recently opened up about one of the defining moments of his career; a 1.8 Million bribe that he was offered alongside Mohammed Ali when they were still hustlers.
The money would come in two instalments; 10,000 dollars and 7500 dollars (which is about Kshs 1.8 Million) topped by a trip to Tanzania.
playThey were offered quite an amount (Instagram)Track It
The story in question involved the ‘Track It’ (car tracking company) who would receive cash from customers but would not install the tracking devices.
“There is a guy whose job was installing tracking devices in cars but he wasn’t installing them even though he used to take money from customers. So we investigated with Mohammed Ali it was our first job together and we confronted him and so he offered us 10,000 dollars to kill the story. About 1 million shillings at that time and he would add 7,500 dollars and take us on a trip to Tanzania for his other businesses. At that point we were hustlers,” Allan disclosed on Radio Maisha.
Despite the tempting offer and their financial status at that time, the two declined it, a situation that angered the owner of the company who started threatening their lives forcing them to flee to Germany.
playThe two were forced to flee to Germany. (Instagram)
The threat from the ‘Track It’ owner is not the only death threat Allan has received in his line of investigative journalism. He admits that what keeps him going despite the countless death threats is his passion to tell a story and not because he is braver than most journalists.
“I can’t say I’m braver than most people. I think it’s not really about bravery, it’s not about that. I think it’s because I have a passion to tell a story. Its really about being passionate,” He explained.
