Kenya joined the rest of the world in marking this year's International Women's Day.
While Kenyan women, dot every sector with remarkable milestones, the media industry has not been left behind.
Female journalists and media personalities in the country have made significant impact, breaking the glass ceiling and defying the status quo.
Here are household names that shaped the Kenyan media industry and inspired a whole generation and others to come.
Catherine Kasavuli
The late Catherine wore the crown of Kenya’s first female TV anchor leaving an unmatched legacy in the media industry.
She was a role model to many journalists during her long and successful career that spanned three decades.
Her career as a journalist began in 1985 at KBC where she was a continuity presenter before moving to KTN in the early 1990s.
She also worked for Citizen TV before returning to KBC when the station relaunched in 2022.
Catherine inspired and mentored many young journalists throughout her career and championing for the rights of women.
She received many awards, including an accolade, 'The Order of the Grand Warrior of Kenya' from former President Mwai Kibaki and the AJEA award by the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) on May 2022.
She died in December 29, 2022 at the age of 60 after a long battle with cervical cancer.
Julie Gichuru
Julie began her career in broadcast at Capital FM before moving to Kenya Television Network (KTN) as a reporter and news anchor where her work notably focused on exposing cases of corruption, crime and injustices highlighted in her investigative series, ‘The Inside Story’.
She later moved to NTV where she worked as a presenter and Citizen TV where she hosted the Sunday Live show with the show hitting highest ratings across the country.
The journalist who is now running her own company,’ Arimus Media’, later moved to KBC to host ‘The Great Debaters and African Leadership Dialogues’, where she interviewed different global leaders.
Aside from her CEO role, Gichuru is now the Chief Public Affairs and Communications Officer at the Mastercard Foundation where she oversees corporate, programmatic, policy and leadership communications.
"I want to highlight human challenges and development issues. I also want to celebrate successes so others can learn from them,” Gichuru stated in a past interview.
Faridah Karoney
Farida Karoney is a seasoned journalist who was credited for the growth and turnaround of Citizen TV and the over 14 radio stations under the Royal Media Services stable while serving the company's as the Chief Operations Officer.
She also served as the Group Editorial Director before she was appointed as the Lands Cabinet Secretary under the tenure of former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The trained teacher from Kenyatta University was among the founding reporters at KTN.
Her passion for media led her to obtain a post-graduate diploma in Mass Communications from the University of Nairobi, followed by a Master of Business Administration.
Many journalists have attributed their success to Karoney’s hand-holding, while she was calling shots at RMS.
Sophie Ikenye
The now British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) TV presenter is a celebrated Kenyan news broadcaster whose career span over two decades spending the better part of her career in Kenya as a news anchor at NTV.
Before her 12 years at NTV, Sophie was an intern at KBC where her career began.
She now shares stories about Africa and trailblazing Africans through Focus in Africa, a popular programme on BBC.
In 2016, she was named among 100 Most Influential Young Africans.
Cynthia Nyamai
Nyamai has a decorated career and is well known for her roles in KTN as a business reporter and anchor where she highlighted different challenges faced by businesses in the country.
She excelled in her career working for the police department in Uganda where she stated during a past interview that she was evicted for her stand on corruption .
The TV siren detailed in February 2021, that she was denied her salary for two years because of declining overtures to bribe senior officials.
She rejoined KBC’s Legend Edition in July 2021.
