Former KTN investigative journalist, John Allan Namu, on Saturday, September 28, bagged the Global Investigative Journalists Network’s Global Shining Light Award.
Namu was handed the prize during a colourful event held in Hamburg, Germany.
The renown journalist alongside his Africa Uncensored team was feted with the prestigious award for an explosive featured dubbed The Profiteers, which came out in October 2018.
According to the winner-selection criteria, the prize honours investigative journalism conducted in developing or transitioning countries, done under threat, duress, or in the direst of conditions.
"What a week for Africa Uncensored! We got a citation of excellence for our work on The Profiteers, and Joy Kirigia
Mukami Purity and Catherine Muema have been winning all week," Namu posted on his Twitter page.
Interestingly, the investigative piece which landed his team the coveted award was turned away by KTN last year, as they felt it was too explosive to be aired without a few edits.
In a thread via his Twitter handle on October 11, 2018, Namu stated that the editors of the said media house “were largely happy with the story, but wanted to remove certain parts of it as they sought comment from an adversely mentioned person. We disagreed, given that we had already sought fair comment from this person.”
He then went on to publish his findings on Africa Uncensored's social media pages, effectively igniting a countrywide conversation.
A section of Kenyans went as far as organizing a peaceful protest against alleged looting of funds in conflict-prone South Sudan by prominent leaders and politicians.
