Kenyan Broadcast Journalist Is Changing The World “One Story At A Time”

By: Jennifer Dorroh | 11/08/2019
Rose Wangui speaking

Kenyan TV reporter Rose Wangui doesn’t shy away from taboo subjects. She has  tackled topics such as sexual bondage of young girls, violence against Kenyan women workers overseas, and squalid school conditions where children lack even desks or pencils.

Her mission is clear: “Journalists should strive to tell stories that change people’s perceptions and make society better,” she said as she accepted the 2019 Knight International Journalism Award in Washington, D.C., given by the International Center for Journalists. 

Her stories have done just that. They have sparked national debates about subjects that had received little or no attention and spurred improvements in society. A features reporter at NTV, the television arm of the Nairobi-based Nation Media Group, Wangui produced a series of stories in 2011 on the devastating effects of female genital mutilation, which prompted the Kenyan parliament to ban the practice. 

Two years later, she produced a powerful documentary titled “Beads of Bondage” that exposed a practice called “beading” in remote Kenyan villages. Under this practice, grown men adorn girls as young as 10 with necklaces of colorful beads that allow them to claim the girls as sexual partners for years without marriage. If pregnancy results the girls are subjected to a crude and painful form of abortion. After the story aired, funds were raised to build a shelter for young victims.

After Wangui’s report on children with both male and female sexual traits -- called intersex person -- the Kenyan government became the first in Africa to include them as a category in the national census. Officials also asked her for her insights and relied on her story to develop policies that protect the rights of intersex people.  Advocates for intersex people said this recognition would help safeguard their rights. 

Last year, Wangui’s two-part series “Slavery in the Gulf,” focused on the perils facing tens of thousands of Kenyan women who travel to the Persian Gulf states to work mainly as domestics servants. Breadwinners for their families, the women often face violence, exploitation and abuse. Wangui told the heart-wrenching story of four families whose daughters died in mysterious circumstances in Saudi Arabia. As a result of her reporting, Kenya’s labor minister launched an investigation into the employment agencies that sent the women to the Gulf States.

“We have a duty to shine a light into the deepest recesses of the human experience and provide a mirror for society to examine itself,” said Wangui.  “Isn’t that what the media is supposed to be all about — expanding the discussion space by generating debate on issues that affect us?”

Latest News

Hans Staiger Award Winner Investigates Russian Soldiers Secretly Treated in Belarus Hospitals, Including Those Linked to War Crimes

Leaked data from the Russian Defense Ministry shook the story loose. A team of investigators found that during the first 21 months of the invasion of Ukraine, nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers were treated at Belarusian hospitals, including war crime suspects. These “secret patients,” as they were known, directly tied Belarus to Moscow’s war effort.

I Blew Up on TikTok with Journalism — Here's How You Can, Too

l'll never forget the day when an editor at the BBC told a 25-year-old me that journalists shouldn’t be on TikTok because “there’s so much misinformation on there.” By that point, I had maybe 10,000 followers on the platform, possibly more, and the comment stung. My TikToks, which had amplified my journalism as well as my passion for learning new languages, were well researched and I hoped the direct opposite of misinformation. 

A New Era for News: Sharon Moshavi on AI, Micro Media and More

ICFJ President Sharon Moshavi recently joined Interlochen Public Radio News Director Ed Ronco for a public conversation on the state of journalism, hosted by the International Affairs Forum at Northwestern Michigan College. The discussion, part of the forum’s ongoing series focused on global affairs and press freedom, brought together journalists, students and community members from across northern Michigan. Topics included the erosion of trust in media, the collapse of traditional business models, the growing impact of artificial intelligence and the need for innovation in how journalism is practiced and supported.