Unlike most on-screen personalities on Kenyan TV, who are paid salaries to host various shows, Alex Chamwada is a media CEO in his own right. Many Kenyans are familiar with the veteran journalist for his show Daring Abroad, which chronicles the experiences of Kenyans living, working and running businesses in the diaspora.
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Chamwada produces the show through his company, Chams Media, which he established in 2014 after spending two decades as an employee of Kenya’s biggest media houses. Chamwada licenses Daring Abroad, his company’s flagship show, to various stations. In October, he inked a deal with Nation Media Group (NMG) bringing the show’s next season to NTV. The show, which previously aired on KTN, first came to NTV in 2020.
And earlier in December, Chamwada signed a deal with Kikuyu language TV station Kameme TV for Chams Media to bring a new show to the Mediamax-owned channel. The weekly show dubbed Kuigereka Ruraya will showcase Kenyans living and working abroad as well as those who lived abroad but are now back investing in Kenya.
Chams Media also produces TV ads and offers communication consultancy services. Among corporates it lists as it clients are Safaricom, Co-op Bank and Kenya Airways.
Chams Media has also been expanding its footprint across the country, opening up offices in Kisumu and Turkana. Chamwada began his journalism career in 1994 as a volunteer at state-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) while still pursuing his Information Sciences degree at Moi University.
He would return to KBC in 1998 as an intern reporter. In March 1999, he joined Royal Media Services (RMS).
He would double up for RMS as a radio and TV presenter after the company unveiled its first TV station that October.
Chamwada would go on to have stints at Standard Group’s KTN and, later, a return to RMS which he left in 2014 to focus on Chams Media.
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