If there’s a media personality who stands apart from the rest because of her elegance, professionalism and more importantly her values, it’s Catherine Kasavuli. Kenyans of a certain age group know her as the news anchor who graced our screens most evenings for the nine o’clock news, and for those growing up during the ‘Catherine Kasavuli era’, you know her as the lady who made news sound interesting because of her eloquence. But just how did she get to our screens? And which gender barriers did she break along the way? 

 

The Articulate Speaker

Catherine was born in 1962, just as the country was inching towards its independence. She was raised in Nairobi, specifically in Nairobi West, and attended Ngara Girls High School, which was one of the top-performing day secondary schools in the country, located in the outskirts of the Nairobi CBD. One of the skills she mastered was the art of verbal communication. Catherine continuously became eloquent in her speech and reading, and on one evening at home, her uncle pointed out that her diction and articulation of words were very good. He also commended her nonverbal communication while reading, and this gave rise to a conversation about working in the media. He informed her about a vacancy at the Voice of Kenya’s (VOK) radio station and encouraged her to apply for an interview. The year was 1980 and Catherine was only 18 years old, but age was nothing but a number as she walked through the doors of the national (and oldest) media house in Kenya to shoot her shot at a job that would have her voice broadcasted around the country. 

She was one of ten candidates at the interview, and the interview panel soon informed all candidates that they would be scaling down to three candidates. And so Catherine had to stand out. Despite the jitters that come with applying for something new and the strong hope to be among the best, hers was a natural gift, and so she read the lines provided to her just as she would any other script. Just like her uncle had said, her pronunciation and voice set her apart from the rest, and she got a job as a radio announcer. 

 

Squashing Imposter Syndrome

The jitters vacated for a while, but soon returned when she started working. With no professional training, Catherine found herself as an outlier. Unlike most of her colleagues, she was among the most inexperienced – even on an educational front. This caused her to shrink herself at the workplace and it took a longer time than she expected to feel comfortable in her ability to get the job done right. Still, as is the case with media, the work environment was fast paced, and she couldn’t afford to be left behind.  

In 1982, two years into her media profession, Catherine enrolled at the Institute of Mass Communication to get the skills that would add to her knowledge and help her climb the career ladder. Outside of her main work, she started taking on freelance work in commercials which allowed her to pocket additional income and broaden her experience. In 1985, Catherine was promoted to one of the voices and faces in front of the camera. She was Kenya’s first female news anchor! This was an opportunity to be a face of a media company as well as an inspiration to young girls aspiring to work in the same industry. Poised and elegant, Catherine became a household name and a symbol of journalism in Kenya. In 1990, when the first privately-owned media house in the country was started, Catherine was among the team of professionals recruited to be part of the Kenya Television Network’s (KTN) brand identity. KTN was different from VOK in that it was a media station paving way for the freedom of expression in media and using a different wavelength frequency to distribute its audio-visual content. Despite the first year being primarily a discover period, it was an exciting next step in Catherine’s media career. It was also the season where her influence grew tremendously as she was the first news anchor to broadcast live news on KTN. 

 

Back to Her Roots 

After 17 years at KTN, Catherine moved to Citizen TV where she worked as a news anchor until 2015 when she decided to leave the screen, making room for other news anchors. But as is the case with life, sometimes we find ourselves in places we once were, and in 2021, KBC (the former VOK) rebranded and announced its new cohort of news anchors – among them was the memorable face of Catherine Kasavuli.

Hers has been a long road in the industry, but one that has brought news into our homes, and showed us key aspects of verbal and nonverbal communication. As Catherine continues in her journey, we can only wish her the best and look forward to learning from her. 

#KeFemaleFirsts