The Woman’s Newsroom Foundation is a feminist Nairobi-based organisation established in 2018 to amplify the voices of women in Kenya’s news media, and to bolster the place of women journalists in the newsrooms. We are accredited by the Media Council of Kenya as a media association. Our vision is to pursue gender equality and sensitivity in news content; guaranteeing fairness in the coverage of women; and pursuing policies and other mechanisms that advance careers and professional aspirations of women journalists in the media industry.
Our key objective is to strengthen the voice of the woman in the media and to support the professional growth and career progression of women working in the media industry. We are focused on ensuring that women from all cadres of society, including women leaders, community members, and those women in the policy-making space, get a platform to share their ideas; participate and influence important public debates on development in Kenya. We aim to magnify the visibility of women in the print, online, digital and broadcast media platforms.
We also support women journalists, female students who are passionate about journalism, active journalists and editors, offering opportunities for mentorship, professional networking, and training. We reach out to experienced women journalists who are no longer in the mainstream media and those still practicing to work with us as mentors to the younger colleagues and those new in the profession.
The Foundation is a skills development, professional networking, and mentoring initiative for women journalists, and for men journalists who are passionate about using the power of the media to empower women in Kenya. Our interest is in developing useful networks for women leaders and women-led projects to ensure access to mass media and effective participation and engagement in the public debates in the policy sphere.
Besides pursuing the gender equality agenda in newsrooms in furtherance of the provisions of Article 27 of the Constitution of Kenya (2010), will in a way guarantee the amplification of important news stories about women, stories which are hitherto unreported. We are keen to safeguard the representation of women in news media in order to limit the debilitating effects of overt and inadvertent misrepresentation of issues affecting women, and the historical gender stereotyping prevalent in a patriarchal society that Kenya is.
Defending women inside and outside the newsroom against all forms of abuse, through empowering them to detect, resist and stop the abuse is also part of our mandate.
This Foundation works with professional journalists and editors, journalism students, teachers in journalism schools and work in collaboration with partners keen on pursuing the agenda for women and girls.
Njeri Rugene is a Media and Communications Consultant, focusing mainly on Gender, Development and Society, a Mentor and Journalism Trainer. A long serving Print Journalist with the Nation Media Group- East and Central Africa’s largest Media House- Njeri has extensive experience in Parliamentary and Political Journalism and writing on issues affecting women and children, especially Gender and Sexual Violence. At the Nation Media Group, Njeri served as Editor on various desks, the longest being on the Parliamentary Desk, News Editor, Regional Editor as head of the Coast Bureau and as Senior Editor for Content Generation. An award winning Parliamentary and gender writer, Njeri started her journalism as an intern at NMG, in early Nineties, covering Sports before joining the Group as a Reporter on its Kiswahili Newspaper Taifa Leo. Five years later, she joined the Daily Nation Team. She left the Newsroom in March 2019 after about 25-years and founded the Woman’s Newsroom Foundation.
Njeri is the author of Women Changing The Way The World Works, a publication of the Democracy Trust Fund published in November 2018. The book profiles selected Kenya women and their positive contributions to their communities in different spheres of development and leadership. A Graduate of the University of Nairobi with BA in English Literature, Kiswahili and Sociology, Njeri holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Communication from the University’s School of Journalism. She has extensive training on Women, Leadership and Health from Kalmar University, Sweden, and from other international and local institutions such as Strathmore University where she trained on advanced leadership. A member of the Media Council of Kenya and Association of Media Women in Kenya, Njeri is also involved in mentorship of children.
Esther is a freelance media Consultant. A principled, creative and innovative team player with strong people, administrative and communication skills, she is an authority in Kenya’s Media scene. Esther made history as the first woman in Kenya to manage a mainstream newspaper, when she became the Managing Editor of the Sunday Standard. Then, she worked at the Standard Group. She was the founding Executive Director of the Media Council of Kenya and was a Senior Lecturer at Tangaza College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and the Kenya Methodist University.
Esther has worked in the mainstream Media, in media regulation, in media development NGOs and in media training institutions at various levels. She has experience in corporate communications and served as Senior Corporate Communications Officer with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). She has gained invaluable experience working with both internal and external audiences much of it gained at Friedrich Ebert Foundation and at the Media Council where such audiences included Government, civil society and the media. Esther began her tertiary studies at Makerere University, Kampala and has a BA in Literature from the University of Nairobi.
I have trained in Journalism with the Johnson Foundation, the Commonwealth Press Institute, both of the United Kingdom, and the International Centre for Foreign Journalists, New Jersey, USA. She has also completed a course in Sage Philosophy at the Maryknoll Institute of African Studies, Tangaza College and has a Post Graduate Diploma in Gender and Development from the University of Nairobi.
Breen Laban holds a BA in Journalism and Media studies from the University of Nairobi, School of Journalism. He has more than six years’ combined experience in mainstream, blogging and organisational communication. Laban is an accomplished reporter and communications specialist in most thematic areas, with an inclination to human rights, justice and community empowerment. Laban has worked with Nation Media Group, African Laughter (a public relations firm), among other organisations. He is also good at project monitoring and reporting, photography and graphic design.