Waihiga Mwaura Quits Citizen for BBC

Citizen TV news anchor Waihiga Mwaura is set to leave the Royal Media Services (RMS)-owned station for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Mwaura has spent the past 14 years at Royal Media, starting out as a sports presenter and rising through the ranks to helm prime-time bulletins in addition to hosting high-profile interviews and serving as special projects editor.

Mwaura has racked up several awards, including the BBC World News Komla Dumor award in 2018, the Mo Amin Africa award in 2015 and the CNN Multi-choice Africa award in 2012. He is set to host his last show on Citizen TV on May 2, Newsnight from 9pm.

He confirmed the move to the BBC on Tuesday, May 2 in a post on his social media accounts. Mwaura disclosed that he would feature on ‘Focus on Africa’ – a programme on the BBC World Service that delivers political, economic, sports and cultural news from Africa.

“After 14 amazing years at Royal Media Services (Citizen TV), my time here has come to an end. My next stop is BBC News, BBC Africa, specifically Focus on Africa,” he shared, promising more details in days to come.

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Mwaura has a degree in Computer Science, and says he landed in media almost by chance, but has become one of the country’s most celebrated and accomplished journalists.

He has previously stated that he was informed of an opportunity to audition for a presenter position at RMS by someone at the church he was attending, and while he didn’t immediately land the role, one of the recruiters remembered him and later called him in. He started working at RMS in 2009.

Prior to joining Royal Media Services (RMS), Mwaura had worked as a sales agent for KenCall Ltd and a Graduate Management Trainee operations officer at Stanbic Bank.

A staunch Christian, Mwaura famously turned down a Ksh1 million bríbe offered to journalists in Kenya’s contingent to the 2016 Olympics in Rio, stating that his needs were taken care of by the office.

The remaining seven out of eight accredited Kenyan sports journalists who travelled to cover the event were reportedly happy to pocket $10,000 each. The details emerged as the then Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario and National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) head Stephen Soi were sued for misappropriation of public funds.

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