2027: The Long View

Before they were lawmakers, they were reporters. This edition of Jeff Koinange Live brought together three politicians who spent their early careers in newsrooms: Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan, Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua and Wajir South MP Mohamed Adow.

Yusuf Hassan's story began in northern Kenya, where conflict made his family refugees, and continued under a repressive regime that sent him into exile a second time, this time to the BBC in London. The moment that pushed him into politics came years later, back home in Eastleigh. Police burst into a restaurant demanding IDs, and he and other diners were taken to Pangani police station and roughed up. That night he decided he would use the skills journalism had given him to change conditions in his own neighbourhood, where schools sat in disrepair barely a kilometre from the seat of power.

Enoch Wambua grew up in the grazing fields of Kitui and rose to acting managing editor at the Kenya Times before moving to the Nation. His turning point came in 2014. A presidential visit to help build a school in his home area was cancelled at the last minute, he said, after local leaders lobbied against him. He admitted he cried that day, and prayed that if he lived to 2017 he would run for office himself.

Mohamed Adow started as the Nation's North Eastern correspondent while still a student at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, filing stories from telephone tips in Garissa and Mandera. He went on to the BBC Somali service, became a senior producer in London and later worked for the BBC's African services.

Three careers that began in journalism are now in the thick of politics with 2027 on the horizon. For Jeff, a fellow journalist, it was a chance to ask what the newsroom teaches you about power, and what it doesn't.

Continue with Part 3 on Citizen TV.