Nation Media Group scribes scoop awards

Murithi Mutiga, at the Daily Metro in Kenya, Tabu Butagira, and Emmauel Gyezaho at The Daily Monitor in Uganda, Samuel Kamndaya at The Citizen, and the winner of the 2007 Golden Pen Award Journalist of the Year Benon Herbert Oluka at The East African in Uganda, were the winners of the awards. The four media houses fall under Nairobi-based Nation Media Group.

“Three print journalists in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have been recognised for their outstanding potential and named as the first winners of the new David Astor Journalism Awards,” the statement said. The journalists were selected from a field of 51 locally nominated candidates in a rigorous assessment process spanning nine months.

The top three include; Daily Metro's Mutiga, Daily Monitor's Butagira and Valentine Mar Nkwame at the Arusha Times in Tanzania.

The runners-up were Kamndaya at The Citizen, Gyezaho at The Daily Monitor and Benon Oluka at The East African in Uganda, Kenneth Kwama and Elizabeth Mwai, both at The Standard in Kenya; and Ezekiel Kamwaga at The African in Tanzania.

Each winner will initially take part in a three-month professional development program tailored to their needs and interests, working with experienced outside journalists, and then become career-long members of the David Astor Journalism Awards peer-support network.

They also received $500 as token cash for their quality work. “Each runner-up received a token cash award of $250 and will be automatically reconsidered in the next round of awards. Nominations for other new candidates will be accepted starting in April,” the statement said.

“Appropriate programs will be designed with each award winner and their employers in the coming months. These could include temporary work placements at newspapers in the David Astor Journalism Awards Trust and UK or South Africa, or intensive professional mentoring from veteran outside journalists in the award winners' own newsrooms,” according to the statement.

Michael Holman the former Africa Editor at The Financial Times in London who was one of the judges said: “This has been much more than a talent-spotting exercise. Above all, it has been a privileged opportunity to play a part in the creation of a network of some of East Africa's most capable young journalists, who will surely develop as an influential and inspirational force in the region and beyond.”

The David Astor Journalism Awards Trust (DAJAT) was formed in 2005, in honour of David Astor, a renowned editor of The Observer newspaper who championed human rights and African development between 1948 and 1975 and who died in 2001.

“We intend now to make further annual awards to the most promising print journalists working in English in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and hope to expand the program to other countries in Africa in the future,” Astor remarked.