Veteran broadcast journalist Swaleh Mdoe is a household name in Kenya’s media industry. Perhaps everyone who has watched or owned a tv set since the early 2000s knows him from his KTN days.
He has established himself as one of the best Swahili news anchors in the country, winning multiple awards in the process.
He is famed for his humour as witnessed in the chit-chat narrations during news reading and his famour “Tafakari ya Babu” segment.
Background & Education
Mdoe was born on May 23, 1968 in Tudor, Mombasa County.
He attained his Kenya Certificate Education from Tudor Day School in Mombasa.
He later attended the Media Institute and graduated with a Diploma in Human Rights and Media. Mdoe proceeded to Malaspina University College, Canada where he pursued a degree in Media Studies.
The 53-year-old news anchor later joined the United States International University (USIU-A) where he attained a certificate in journalism.
Career
Mdoe has been a journalist since 1991 with experiences in both print and electronic media. This is owed to his prior stints at the Kenya Times, Standard Newspapers, The Message, Weekly Mail, BBC, Nation TV, and KTN.
He has also contributed news stories, features and reports for London-based shipping magazine, Ports International between 1997 and 2002 , the Los Angeles Times (USA), and Uhuru.
He contributed for The Express newspapers both in Tanzania and locally.
Mdoe first thrust into the media scene as a news anchor at Nation TV (now NTV) in 1999. He worked at the media house until 2001 when he joined KTN for a bigger role.
AT KTN, he was the Kiswahili News editor, and anchored for six years until 2007 when he departed for Royal Media Services (RMS).
Mdoe has served at RMS owned Citizen TV up to date where he is a Kiswahili News Editor and Anchor.
Publications
His mastery of the Swahili language and ability to narrate tales would have been a complete waste on anchoring news alone. Hence, the numerous books.
Mdoe is a known and accredited writer, with several of his writings published over the years.
Some of his books include: Fumbo La Hadaa (Mvule Africa, 2005), Nachora Kwa Maneno (Oxford University Press, 2009), Michezo Yetu ( Moran Publisher, 2010),Tafakari Ya Babu ( Moran Publishers, 2011), Mwanasiasa (East African Educational Publishers, 2016), Mpira wa Kilo na Wenzake ( Phoenix Publishers, 2018) and a self- published book, TV News Anchoring which came out in 2019.
Memberships
He is a member of the Media Council of Kenya and Kenya Editors Guild. Between 1993 and 1996, he was also a member of the East African Foreign Correspondents Association.
In July 2009, he was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of Culture by Jamhuri Peace Foundation, a programme under the United Nation Habitat.
Between 2012 – 2016, he was a commissioner for ACALAN( which loosely translates in French as the African Academy of Langauges). It is a specialized body of the African Union tasked with the development and promotion of the use of African languages as a pragmatic means of fostering African integration.
Awards
Over the course of his career, Mdoe has raked up numerous accolades for his exploits in journalism.
He was awarded the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) Journalists of the Year Awards as the News Anchor of the Year (Kiswahili) for the year 2003 and again in 2004.
He won the favourite TV Male Presenter Award for four consecutive years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 in the youth premier awards, Chaguo La Teeniz Awards(CHAT).
In 2004 Daystar University, awarded him a recognition award, The Star of Excellence Awards.
Tutoring
For his mastery of Kiswahili and media experience, Mdoe has been invited to lecture at various learning institutions in the country.
They include: Catholic University of Eastern Africa( CUEA), Nairobi International School and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology (JKUAT).
Salary
His salary is estimated at slightly over Ksh300,000 per month.
Family
Mdoe is a married man with a wife and children. In 2014, a lady, Fauzia Ahmed filed a case against Mdoe seeking to have the court order his employer to attach part of his salary for the maintenance of a child he sired in 2004.
