Revealed! My Confessions as an Unpaid Intern With A Kenyan Leading Media Station

This story details the struggles I went through while working for a leading media house in the country.

My day would start at 6.30 am as I had to make sure that I was at the office by 8 am. Since I lived quite a distance from the work premise, it meant waking up as early as 5 to ensure that by at least 6.30 I was out of the house.

Once at work, I’d start my day by going through the international websites to look for international stories to write. At 9 am we would have an editorial meeting to discuss what stories would be assigned. As usual most of my senior colleagues would arrive as late as 9.30 am and the managing director would yell at all of us (yes, even us interns who’d arrive early) for being late and lacking ‘seriousness’.

After the meeting, we’d all return to our respective desks to get started on the assigned work, or so I was naïve enough to think. While I (read the interns) was busy typing away my other colleagues were busy chatting about their boyfriends/girlfriends and how ‘super romantic’ they were. And don’t even bother trying to interrupt them, even if it was for something important, for they would tell you to ‘bother’ them after the 10 am tea break, since at the moment they were ‘busy’.

Then of course long after the tea break was over they would take their sweet time returning to their desks which meant we (the interns) would be forced to do our work plus theirs, since the website would need material ready for uploading. The same thing would also happen during lunchtime and for the 4 o’clock afternoon tea.

Eventually 7pm would reach and it would be time to leave. The company would offer a 14 seater matatu ride up to ‘town’, but if you’re among us-the unlucky lot- who live outside Nairobi you’d be forced to use your own means to get home (as late as 9pm) in the dark.

That said it was quite hard being an intern. First of all we were never paid, no allowance, not even a free cup of tea, nothing.

Secondly you’re constantly overworked.

Woe unto you if your department has some lazy employees (which it did) who want you to do their work for them as if you yourself weren’t busy.

Third, it was just so crazy having old men ‘hit on you’ all the time. What’s funnier was the fact that most were old enough to be your dad, heck even your grandpa. And should you resist (like I always did) you’d automatically be termed ‘kichwa ngumu’(hard headed).

Fourth, SILLY, SILLY cat fights with your colleagues. The female ones would want to fight over men from the office or were suffering from some serious mood swings whereas the men wouldn’t listen to any of your input (even if you were right) then yell at you after the fact, for not correcting them.

So if you’re out there reading this complaining how your 8-5, probably paid internship/job is horrible, think again. Appreciate how good you’ve got it. That said, am sure you’re wondering why I probably never quit or went on to defame the company?

Well, there were also several key things I took from the internship;

One, I got the experience I needed. Yes, I was overworked, but I also got to write many stories with a range of different topics and heck I even discovered I was good at writing sports stories.

Secondly, acquiring the survival instinct. You get so many things thrown at you and you think you’re going to go crazy, but somehow, someway you survive to make it another day, and you realize you’re actually stronger than you thought you were.

Thirdly, it opened doors. The experience has led me to getting my current job because of the skills I acquired in said company. At the time it didn’t look like it, but the stormy cloud did pass and there was a bright light at the end of the tunnel.

In conclusion, no matter how bad you think your life is, know some of us have had it worse. So do the honourable thing and turn life’s lemons into lemonade.

The name of the writer has been withheld to protect her identity

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