DW Awards Young Kenyan Journalists; Signs Treaty with AGU to Train More

Jonathan Masongo (left) and Claus Stäcker, head of DW's Africa service — The first prize winner, Jonathan Masongo, giving his acceptance speech at the awards ceremony as Claus Stäcker, head of DW’s Africa service, looks on.

Last week Deutsche Welle (DW) was quite busy in Kenya, from awarding young journalists to signing treaties to train more journalists.

Awarding young talent

As part of the “Local Heroes Journalism Competition” held in cooperation with the Standard Group media, DW’s Director General Peter Limbourg, was in Kenya for the awards ceremony. The competition invited entrants to tell the story of a remarkable individual whose work they admire or who has made a deep impression on them.

The winner of the first and second prize was Jonathan Masongo, a fourth year communication and media studies student at Egerton University in Nakuru. His prizes are a video camera and a trip to Germany.

“I did a video about James Wakibia who is an activist, journalist and photographer,” he said.

“Unsung Hero James Wakibia” tells the heart-rending story of a baby boy in intensive care and how the activist was able to reunite him with his distraught mother.

Carolyne Chepkoech Bii received a brand new Marantz Professional Voice Recorder for the best radio entry. She found her hero at a defining moment in a local newsroom. “This is the person I met the moment I entered the newsroom and the moment I decided I wanted to be a journalist,” she said. “He encouraged and taught me to tell a story that would make an impact.”

Polishing established talent

The Aga Khan University president Firoz Rasul (left), Graduate School of Media and Communications dean Michael Meyer and Deutsche Welle director-general Peter Limbourg during the signing ceremony at the Aga Khan University Westlands Campus in Nairobi.

DW’s Director General Peter Limbourg, was also in Nairobi for the signing of a pact with the Aga Khan University to develop training programmes for media and communication professionals in East Africa.

The partnership will see trainers from DW Akademie,the international media development and training division of DW, offer their expertise to students at the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications (AKU-GSMC) located in Westlands, Nairobi.

Speaking on Tuesday during the signing of the memorandum of understanding, The Aga Khan University presidentFiroz Rasul said the programmes running for up to a week would target practising journalists.

“The professional development programmes will increase journalists’ capacity to explain information to their audience better, which happens to be their main mandate,” he said.

The institution hopes to have trained approximately 250 professionals by the end of this year, with plans to have the number go up to 600 by the end of next year.

DW Director- General Peters Limbourg said strengthening human rights through media development is at the core of the undertaking that is envisaged to be a long-term project.

Share with friends:

You may also like: