John-Allan Namu

Namu is a 2024 ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award winner.

John-Allan Namu is a dogged reporter and media entrepreneur who has been at the forefront of investigative journalism in his native Kenya for nearly two decades, exposing corruption and highlighting its harsh impact on ordinary citizens.

As co-founder, chief executive and editorial director of the investigative news outlet Africa Uncensored, he has led in-depth probes that tackle issues other newsrooms often avoid – from city inspectors using violence to extort bribes from Nairobi’s street vendors to criminal gangs preying on residents of Kenya’s biggest slums to fake fertilizer being sold to unsuspecting farmers.

Namu established Africa Uncensored in 2015 along with two colleagues from the Kenya Television Network (KTN) to ensure that underreported problems plaguing the public receive the thorough, in-depth attention they deserve. Their stories are produced by some of Kenya’s best investigative journalists; they are featured on major print and broadcast media throughout the country; and they have often brought positive results.

After a four-part series on street vendors was televised and published in local media, seven city inspectors were charged with robbing vendors and soliciting bribes. The officers were caught on tape harassing, beating and demanding cash from the informal traders as payoff for being allowed to sell their wares.

An investigative report on the sale of counterfeit fertilizer, which turned out to be bags of sand, prompted hearings in the Kenyan Senate. The sand was sold at government outlets across the country as a state-subsidized product. After the stories appeared, the government suspended the sale of the fake fertilizer, pulled it from the market and pledged to compensate farmers who were bilked.

A three-part documentary about South Sudan revealed a web of corruption where members of the country’s elite reaped illicit profits from civil war. The series showed how government and business leaders plundered their own war-ravaged country while investing in other East African nations.

Namu began his journalism career in 2005 at KTN, where he first worked as a college intern and was subsequently hired as a reporter. During a long career at the broadcaster, he held various positions – reporter, producer, news anchor and special projects editor. He built a reputation as one of the nation’s best investigative journalists.

Namu has received multiple awards for his work. He was recognized three times as Kenya’s  Journalist of the Year, and in 2019 he won the TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting, a major international award for  journalism that uncovers business-related bribery and financial crimes.

Known as a trainer and mentor to hundreds of journalists, Namu is also the author of a memoir coming out in 2024, “The Joy in the Struggle.”