Ciku Muiruri: From Classic 105’s Busted to Catholic Digital Evangelism

Ciku Muiruri did not follow the conventional route into journalism.

In a 2024 interview with ACI Africa, she recalled sitting in a studio when a voice-over artist failed to show up.

She was asked to fill in, the team liked her voice, and she was recommended to Capital FM’s head of radio.

Her interview lasted five minutes before she was hired.

Her radio career began in 1998 and eventually took her through Capital FM, Kiss 100, Easy FM and Classic 105, where she became one of Kenya’s most recognisable female radio personalities.

She spent about 15 years in radio before leaving Classic FM in December 2013.

The show that made her a household name

Muiruri’s defining radio project was Busted, a programme that turned suspicions of infidelity into live radio confrontations.

The formula was simple but combustible.

A suspicious partner would approach Muiruri, who would phone the suspected unfaithful partner under a pretext.

If the person admitted to cheating, the aggrieved partner - listening in - could confront them on air.

The show drew a huge audience, but it also attracted criticism over privacy, reputational harm and the public exposure of intimate relationships.

In 2010, the AIDS Law Project lodged a complaint with the Media Council over a Busted broadcast.

The case became part of the documented controversy surrounding the programme.

Muiruri has said she does not regret hosting Busted, although she has admitted being tired of constantly answering questions about it.

Its clips continue to circulate online, introducing the format to audiences who never heard the original broadcasts.

The book written around 'Busted'

Leaving radio did not end Muiruri’s media career.

She moved into writing, becoming an editor and columnist associated with Pulse magazine at The Standard.

She also turned the relationship drama behind her best-known programme into a book, Love Is But a Dream: Ciku’s Busted!, exploring infidelity, romantic disappointment and the choices people make in relationships.

In August 2020, she returned to radio through Choice Radio’s Kace and Sadia Show, after a break of several years.

Digital evangelism

In recent years, Muiruri has devoted much of her public communication to Catholic faith and digital evangelisation.

Raised Catholic, she told ACI Africa that a novena in 2016 became a turning point in her decision to share prayers and devotional material online.

Her platforms now promote the Rosary, novenas, Eucharistic adoration and other Catholic practices - a marked departure from the relationship confrontations that first made her famous.

Ciku Muiruri remains closely associated with Busted, but her career has included radio, editing, books and religious outreach.

The show made her a household name; the years since have shown a media personality determined to do more than repeat her most famous act.