Hilary Ng’weno
Hilary
Boniface Ng’weno is a Kenyan historian and retired journalist. The
Harvard-educated scientist was born in Nairobi in 1938. After
graduating from Harvard with a degree in physics Ng’weno worked as a
reporter for the Daily Nation for nine months before
his appointment as the newspaper’s first Kenyan Editor-in chief, he established a successful career as a journalist
for more than forty years. In 1973, together with journalist Terry Hirst he founded Joe, a political satire comic magazine that
circulated in many parts of Africa until the late seventies when its
publication ceased, he is best known as the Editor-in-Chief of the Weekly
Review, a weekly news magazine than ran from 1975 to 1999. He is the founder
of the Nairobi Times and the first independent TV news station in Kenya, STV, he is the producer of
documentary videos on Kenyan history, including the Making of a Nation and Kenya's Darkest Hour. In 1975, Ng'weno founded The Weekly Review,
a journal of political news and analysis followed in 1977 by The Nairobi Times,
a Sunday newspaper that became a daily.
In
the beginning, The Weekly Review and The Nairobi Times being
locally owned enterprises, fared well in a field dominated by the foreign-owned
Daily Nation and The Standard but like other local papers,
they faced stiff competition from the established papers for little or lack of
advertising from the foreign companies in Kenya. Because the advertising
community was still controlled by foreigners, it tended to favour the foreign-owned
publications. Advertisers were not too keen to deal with publications that were
to stir the wrath of the government with inflammatory political reports.
Ng’weno’s
publications lasted an impressive length of time, his publications continued to
gain popularity, The Weekly Review went on to dominate the weekly news
scene for more than 20 years, becoming one of Africa’s best news magazines. Due
to diminishing revenue from advertising sales, Ng'weno however, sold The
Nairobi Times in 1983 to KANU, Kenya’s ruling party; the paper was renamed
The Kenya Times, but its popularity suffered,
as it was seen to be the mouthpiece of an oppressive government in a political
era likened to dictatorship.
The
Kenya Times wound up in July 2010. Ng’weno diversified his media empire,
which included other periodicals such as The Financial Review, The Industrial Review and
Rainbow, a monthly children’s magazine, his publishing company, Stellascope was
acquired by KANU when the latter purchased The Nairobi Times. The Weekly
Review folded on May 17, 1999, after 24 years of publication and Ng'weno moved
on to television broadcasting launching a television station, STV Kenya.
Following the sale of STV in 2000, Ng'weno reinvented himself as a historian,
drawing on materials from his journalistic career. Jointly with the Nation Media Group, he produced the Making
of Nation. Jointly with NTV, he has produced over 160
individual half-hour profiles of important figures in Kenya's history, a series
entitled Makers of Nation.
Hilaryhas been married to Fleur,
a native of France, for nearly 50 years. Mrs
Ng’weno, a naturalist and former editor, holds a BSc degree in
conservation from the University of Michigan.
She
has been involved in environmental issues in Kenya for more than forty
years, serving as Honorary Secretary to NatureKenya. Their two daughters Amolo
Ng'weno and Dr Bettina Ng'weno are distinguished achievers in education and
media; the Harvard and Princeton educated Amolo served as deputy director of
financial services for the poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 1994, Amolo together with two other Kenyansfounded
Africaonline one of the first internet service providers in Africa; the three
Kenyans met while still students in Cambridge. Dr Bettina Ng’weno is an
associate professor of African American and African studies at
the University of California, Davis, (Various sources)
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