Burrows did not believe she would actually have the interview until on the D-Day.
“I was like I will believe it when he walks into the room. I was afraid because of his schedule he may run late and then we may not get the interview. I did not want to have my hopes crushed badly.
Burrows and the Capital FM team, Francis Mbatha (cameraperson), James Mugo (in charge of the live stream) and Wilson Akello (in Charge of Outside Broadcasts) were at Kenyatta University by 7am on Sunday. The interview was however scheduled to take place at 3.05pm.
By 11am the set up was complete.
All that was remaining was for that moment that Obama would walk into the small room with two microphones and two chairs – one for Burrows and the other for Obama.
“There were many phone calls. Many people were calling us and telling us to relax and that it was going to be ok.
But it could not be ok if it is POTUS. It was not an everyday occurrence,” Mbatha recalls.
The tension kept on building.
At every event Obama went, he appeared to answer questions we had lined up for him.
At that point, the Capital FM News team was again cracking their minds to come up with a new set of questions few hours to the interview.
“It was a tough interview because we had crafted questions. But from the moment that he came here, he kept answering our questions from one event to another up to the very last one he had with the civil society. It was a bit nerve racking,” Mumo recalled.
Finally it was 3.05pm.
Obama walked into the tiny room. Burrows got the surprise of her life when Obama called her by her first name.
“We hear the rustle of shoes on the floor – the secret service. Then he walks in. He comes in and says ‘hi, how are you doing Olive’ that blew my head because I was prepared to introduce myself.”
“They (Mbatha and Mugo) looked like they were going to collapse. I was very excited.
When the interview started; “I was shaking, I was telling myself, ‘Olive, stop shaking’. I got tired from all the nodding, I was nodding like crazy.”
After the interview, the team was very excited but greatly tensed up when Obama asked his cameramen to take a photo of all of them.
Mbatha, the cameraman, left his video camera recording, but because of the tension and surprise invite by Obama, he was out of frame.
In the video, only his right side is captured.
“I expected Olive to ask for a selfie, but Obama volunteered himself and said ‘let’s take a photo with your team.’”
“I forgot I was a cameraman, everything else in my mind; I forgot to focus on where we will be standing, I was cut out from the photo shoot, my video recorded but my hand is there and part of my face,” Mbatha recalled.
So why Capital FM?
“Capital FM has been in the market since 1996. It has carved itself a niche as a top radio station in Kenya. We are known for best mix of music. We are known for our credible news. We have a mix of talent representing the brand that is Capital FM. We pride ourselves in providing accurate, timely news. This cannot go unnoticed. As people were putting in request for interviews, definitely Capital FM News had to be one of those stations, I am happy to say that we got it,” Mumo asserted.
Capital Group Limited chairman Dr Chris Kirubi described the opportunity as an honour to the Capital FM team.
“We thank the Americans for what they did because this has motivated our reporters, our people and it has also showed that the way I lead them in doing the right thing pays.
According to Kirubi, Capital FM qualified for the interview because of its focus on issues that have positive impact on the Kenyan society more so to motivate young people.
“The way we report news, the way we advance issues that support the youth. The way our media is not normally among the negative reporters. We looked at how we can empower youth. It is important to be proud of our nation,” he said.
He further appreciated his interactions with Obama even when he was the Illinois Senator: “He reported that he knows me, he remembers me, we spent a lot of time when he was a Senator.”
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