The Standard Group PLC has confirmed Chaacha Mwita as its substantive Chief Executive Officer effective 1st April 2026, ending a nine-month acting arrangement.
- •The move places a veteran editorial executive at the helm of a company locked in an existential regulatory fight with the state in addition to dwindling advertising revenues.
- •Mwita holds an MBA from the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Nairobi, and has worked across media organisations in more than ten African countries.
- •Mwita is the fifth CEO appointment at Standard Group in under three years.
The appointment completes a remarkable comeback. Mwita was forced out of Standard Group in April 2014 after State House reportedly demanded his dismissal over a front-page story exposing a Ksh 100 million government cabinet retreat at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club. He also allegedly clashed with then-CEO Sam Shollei over the airing of Jicho Pevu's "What Happened at the Ballot," a story that never ran. Despite that exit, his brief editorial tenure had delivered a 40% jump in sales.
He rejoined the Standard Group Board in July 2023 but stepped down in August 2024, before returning in April 2025 as Chief Executive Editor under CEO Marion Gathoga-Mwangi. When Gathoga-Mwangi resigned in June 2025 citing personal circumstances, barely a year into her role, the board appointed Mwita Acting CEO and Executive Director effective July 1, 2025.
Gathoga-Mwangi had succeeded acting CEO Joe Munene, who had filled the gap left by Orlando Lyomu's July 2023 resignation. Lyomu, who served from 2018, had overseen an expansion widely credited with saddling the company with significant debt. Before him, Sam Shollei served from September 2012 until his exit in August 2017.
The Standard's Existential Fight
The leadership change comes as The Standard Group fights to keep its broadcasting licences. The Communications and Multimedia Appeals Tribunal on March 27, 2026 dismissed the company's appeal against a revocation notice by the Communications Authority of Kenya, clearing the CA to pull six licences covering KTN News, KTN Burudani, Radio Maisha, Spice FM, Vybez Radio and Berur FM. The outstanding regulatory debt stands at KSh 48.87 million, comprising KSh 13.88 million in licence fees and KSh 34.99 million in USF levies accumulated over several years.
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The Standard Group does not dispute the debt but argues the government owes it Ksh 1.2 billion in unpaid advertising by ministries, agencies and county governments. Mwita has publicly framed the standoff as politically motivated, pointing to the company's hard-hitting coverage of the Kenya Kwanza administration. The company says it is heading to the High Court, where an appeal would automatically stay the revocation pending determination.
Complicating the financial picture, the company's planned KSh 1.5 billion rights issue, approved by the Capital Markets Authority and structured at 283,661,120 new shares priced at KSh 5.29 each on an 11-for-3 basis, was suspended by the board on February 4, 2026. One tranche of the CA repayment plan had been contingent on completing that issue. The board said the suspension was not a cancellation but a pause to reassess structure, timing and market conditions.
The Board of Directors said Mwita had demonstrated the requisite leadership capability, experience and integrity following a structured evaluation of his performance.
