In a press statement on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, CNN announced that it has hired Kenyan journalist Victoria Rubadiri.
This makes the former Citizen TV news anchor the latest local journalist to make their mark on international news networks.
Victoria joins among others, Larry Madowo, who has been working with the Atlanta-based news chanel since May 2021.
In this article, WoK has compiled a list of Kenyan journalists working on CNN.
1. Larry Madowo
On May 13, 2021, Deborah Rayner, Senior Vice President of International Newsgathering and Managing Editor, announced that Larry was leaving BBC to take up a new position with CNN.
In a statement, Deborah said Larry will be the network’s Nairobi-based correspondent.
Prior to his move to CNN, Larry serving as BBC’s North America Correspondent in Washington, DC, covering major events including the 2020 presidential election.
Larry’s career started in Nairobi, where he worked as a trainee journalist at Standard Group’s KTN and later NTV as a business anchor.
He later moved to CNBC where he worked as business and financial news reporter before returning to NTV where he worked until 2018 when he resigned to join BBC.
Larry also worked on radio, hosting a show on Nation FM dubbed, The Larry Madowo Show, which ran from August 2014 to June 2016.
He also wrote a weekly column on the Daily Nation newspaper.
2. Sam Kiley
Sam Kiley is a Kenyan-born journalist currently working on CNN as Senior International Correspondent.
His media career kicked off in 1987 when he joined The Times Newspaper as an education reporter.
In 1990, Kiley moved to The Sunday Times where he worked as its US West Coast correspondent and later transferred to The Times as its Africa correspondent.
Eight years later, he had rose through the ranks and he was then working as The Times’ Middle East bureau chief but he resigned after two years following a dispute with his editors.
Kiley was then hired as chief foreign correspondent for London Evening Standard newspaper and later as a presenter of Channel 4’s current affairs series, Dispatches.
As of 2010, Kiley has worked for Sky News as security editor, defence and security editor and Middle East correspondent, based in Jerusalem.
In 2017, he left Sky News to work as CNN’s Abu Dhabi bureau as a senior international correspondent.
Kiley’s career highlights include being shot while covering a coup attempt in Lesotho in 1998 and being kidnapped along with his cameraman in Iraqi in 2003.
3. Faith Karimi
Faith Karimi is a Senior writer working with CNN teams to report, write and edit stories for CNN.com.
Her journalism career kicked off with internships opportunities with the Austin-American States Newspaper and New York Times at their Nairobi Bureau.
After graduating with a Master’s Degree in Communication in 2005, Karimi joined The Press-Enterprise newspaper and later transferred to The Baltimore Sun where she worked on numerous assignments including covering Barack Obama’s presidential run.
In 2008, she applied for a job at CNN when The Baltimore Sun was reportedly laying off staff, and she was later invited for an interview.
In 2009, Karimi joined CNN as a news desk editor for CNN Digital.
4. Victoria Rubadiri
Victoria Rubadiri has joined CNN for a role on the network’s multiplatform series, Connecting Africa.
Based in Nairobi, she will be reporting on emerging and expanding businesses across Africa as well as impacts of the African Continental Free Trade.
Victoria’s career began in 2007 when she secured an internship opportunity at WMGM-NBC 40 TV, writing texts for the evening news programs and working as a field reporter.
She then moved to Capital FM where she worked as a Business journalist and news presenter and later NTV where she worked as a news anchor.
Victoria was later poached by Citizen TV where she worked as a senior anchor and reporter before her departure to CNN.
