Komla Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014.

Komla Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014.

 

BBC awards Kenyan Waihiga Mwaura with Komla Dumor award

 

A Kenyan journalist and TV presenter, Waihiga Mwaura, has won this year’s BBC World News Komla Dumor Award.

Mwaura presents Kenya’s most-watched evening news bulletin on Citizen TV. Waihiga Mwaura says he want to tell the African story in a different way.

As part of the prize, he will spend three months at the BBC in London and travel back to the continent to report on a story there, BBC has said.

The award was created to honour Komla Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly aged 41 in 2014.

Mr Mwaura is the fourth winner of the award, after Ugandan Nancy Kacungira won the inaugural prize in 2015, followed by Nigerians Didi Akinyelure and Amina Yuguda.

Komla Dumor: Face of Africa

He is a well-known journalist and a respected face across Kenya, who covers a wide array of topics from sports to politics.

“Komla Dumor meant a lot of things to me as a journalist and as an individual,” he said. “If I can only achieve just 10 or 20% of what he did, I feel like I would have made my contribution to journalism.

“As an African, I feel proud to have the opportunity to be able to tell the African story to audiences across the world.”

He impressed the panel with his story-telling ability and on-screen presence.

His passion for giving Africans a voice and his investigative journalism set him ahead of other entrants, the panel said. (DAN with BBC report)

Editorial Chief, Nigerian Bureau

Kings UBA is a Nigerian journalist and writer. I have reported for major local and international news organisations. I write satire. In 2017, I started contributing stories primarily to Discover Africa News Network. I can be reached on editorkingsuba@gmail.com. I currently manage Discover Africa News social media handles