The presidential Debate Secretariat has unveiled five Journalists who will moderate the Nairobi Gubernatorial Debates.
The debate will be held on Monday, July 11 at the Catholic University for Eastern Africa (CUEA) main campus in Karen, Nairobi.
Nairobi Gubernatorial Debate will be done in two tiers.
The first tier will have gubernatorial candidates whose popularity ratings, based on three recent opinion polls, stand below 5 percent. It will run from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
The second tier will have candidates who have polled above 5 percent in the same opinion surveys. It will go on air at 8:00pm and end at 9.30pm.
Serfine Achieng’ Ouma of KBC and K24 TV's Ayub Abdikadir will moderate the first-tier debate while Zubeida Koome of KTN and NTV's Mark Masai will moderate the second-tier.
Panel discussions for both debates will be moderated by Waihiga Mwaura of Citizen TV.
PROFILE
- 1. Serfine Achieng’ Ouma
She is an award-winning journalist with over nine years of experience, holding a bachelor’s degree in Media Science from Moi University.
Since 2018, she has been in charge of reading prime-time English news bulletins, conducting live studio and on-location interviews, doing features and current affairs stories as well as giving live commentary for live events.
In 2022 she was awarded Health Reporting Award by the Media Council of Kenya. In 2021, he was awarded Human Rights Journalist of the year.
- 2. Ayub Abdikadir Abdi
He holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Mount Kenya University and has more than 5 years of experience in media.
He specialises in political journalism with laser-like attention to political development and making sense of them in debates and how they affect the common person.
- 3. Mark Masai
He holds a degree in Journalism from the Institute of Social Communication, Tangaza University College, and currently doing a Masters in Global Business and Entrepreneurship from the same university.
Mark started his journalism career at Radio Africa Group as a news presenter and reporter at Classic 105 before moving to NTV in 2008 as a news anchor and reporter.
At NTV, he hosted Press Pass, a TV weekly show that interrogated and critiqued the big stories that are covered by local media.
- 4. Zubeidah Kananu
She is a broadcast journalist with 15 years of experience and knowledge in communication, research, script writing, reporting and translation.
She holds a master's degree in peace and conflict management, and a bachelor's degree in Peace and conflict studies and a diploma in journalism.
Zubeidah is a senior Swahili news anchor, programmes editor and an award-winning senior reporter at KTN News. She is the current Vice President of Kenya Editors Guild-KEG.
She has interviewed several Heads of State and covered four general elections in Kenya, the promulgation of the 2010 constitution and the burials of two past presidents of Kenya.
- 4. Waihiga Mwaura
Waihiga Mwaura is the Managing Editor, Multimedia & Senior news anchor at Citizen TV.
He writes for Citizen TV and the BBC. In the last 10 years, he has reported from Kenya, Nigeria, the UK, Togo, Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda.
A 6-time award-winning journalist with vast experience moderating conversations around various topics both in Kenya and abroad, he is also the first male winner of the prestigious BBC World News 2018 Komla Dumor award, 2022 and 2021 Media Council Award, 2015 winner of the Mo Amin Africa award, and 2012 winner of the CNN Multichoice Africa award.
Waihiga is a master's student at Daystar University currently concluding his thesis on the impact of Covid-19 on media.