2013 Internews Storyfest Awards: Kevin Mureithi scoops award

By Caroline Njoroge, Internews in Kenya
Kevin Mureithi of K24 Television, scooped the overall Storyfest 2013 award. He beat a crowded field of more than a hundred Kenyan journalists who also submitted quite riveting stories.

The judges unanimously picked Kevin’s winning entry; a story on the ‘miracle healer’ of Loliondo 76 year old Ambilikile Mwasapile. He went behind the scenes to uncover the effects of the miracle potion on the lives of Kenyans living with HIV. The concoction is reputed to absolutely wipe out HIV from the system.

An elated Kevin was feted at the 2013 Internews Storyfest Awards ceremony where he went home with two trophies, a galaxy Tablet and a travel grant sponsorship worth Kshs. 150,000 to do stories on health journalism.

After bagging the award, Kevin didn’t miss words to say about his mentors “I would wish to congratulate my mentors at Internews for helping me all along as I worked on this story”. 

The awards ceremony was held Friday evening at the Kenya Medical Research Institute headquarters and it brought together an esteemed caliber of journalists and Internews team.  The judges team was led by Ng’ang’a Mbugua the chief judge, Moses Rono (producer, BBC), Sarah Kimani (East African Correspondent, SABC) and James Mbugua, an online Media consultant. 

Mr. Otula Owuor the Chief Editor at Science Africa was the Guest of honour on the evening and he went ahead to challenge journalists to work hard in telling very informative health stories from Kenya “there is a lot of work to do because health journalism is very important and don’t forget your role as the watchdogs in the society”. 

James Mbugua,one of the  judges also commended the high quality of entries in each category “I was very impressed by all the entries in all the categories because you were able to turn boring subjects to very interesting stories”. 

Here are the 2013 Internews Storyfest Award winners:

Best TV Story: Marie Yambo, KBC – Shelter of dreams

Best Print Story: Kiundu Waweru, The Standard – Slaves of the beading culture

Best Online story: Wilson Rotich, Africa Woman & Child (AWC) – Obstetric fistula

Best Radio story: Arnold Argeta, Radio Kisima – Wingu la simanzi

Best Data story: Stellah Kasina, Independent – The invisible bridge

Best Story on VMMC Story: Violet Otindo, K24 – Health Unlimited, VMMC

Best Long form/ Documentary story: Kevin Mureithi, K24 – After Loliondo

The runners up for each of the categories were as follows:

Best TV Story

1st Runner’s up: William Inganga, KNA/Marie Yambo, KBC - Community health worker
2nd Runner’s up: Saida Swaleh, KTN – Kibirikizi cha Uzazi -

Best Print Story

1^st Runner’s up: Joy Wanja, Daily Nation – In Isiolo they prefer home births
2^nd Runner’s up: Alex Ndirangu, Daily Nation – Wet Nursing         

Best Online story

1^st Runner’s up: Antony Gitonga, The Standard – Where women drop their babies
2^nd Runner’s up: Wilson Rotich, Africa Woman & Child (AWC)- Rape

Best Radio story

1^st Runner’s up: Miswalleh Zingizi,  QFM – Juto la Ngawira
2^nd Runner’s up: Saum Athman, Pilipili FM – Afya ya uzazi

Best Data story

1^st Runner up’s:  Violet Otindo, K24 – Doctors raise red flag

Best Story on VMMC Story

1^st Runner’s up: Alex Ndirangu, Independent – New Groove
2^nd Runner’s up: Allan Obiero, Radio Nam Lolwe – Stigma pushes men to seek Circumcision

Best Long form/ Documentary story

1^nd Runner’s up: Marie Yambo, KBC – My own flesh and blood
2^st Runner’s up: Kassim Mohamed/John Allan Namu, KTN – Branches of the Baobab

The aim of the awards is to celebrate creative, compelling, unique storytelling in the field of Health Journalism.

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