Larry Madowo
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Larry Madowo (born 14 July 1987) is a
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
International Correspondent and host of th
African Voices Changemakers
and Playmakers series. He was previously a North America Correspondent for the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
and also anchored breaking news and presented '' BBC World News America'' from
Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
. He was a 2019–20 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in New York and the BBC Africa Business Editor until 2019. He is a
reporter A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
, broadcaster, writer and
news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
whose range includes business, technology, current affairs, politics and popular culture. His work has been featured on major global outlets including the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
,
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
International, the ''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', and ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''. Madowo started his career in Nairobi as a Trainee Reporter at KTN and then as a Business Anchor at NTV Kenya where he worked twice, he later anchored and reported business and financial news at
CNBC Africa Consumer News and Business Channel Africa (known as CNBC Africa) is an African pay television network launched on 1 June 2007. Founded by Rakesh Wahi and Zafar Siddiqi, the network is produced under license from CNBC International and is owned ...
before returning to NTV. He resigned from the station in March 2018 to join the BBC. He hosted ''The Larry Madowo Show'' on Nation FM from August 2014 until June 2016 and wrote a weekly column in the ''
Daily Nation The ''Daily Nation'' is a Kenyan newspaper. It was founded in 1958 and is published in Nairobi. History The ''Daily Nation'' was started in the year 1958 as a Swahili weekly called ''Taifa'' by the Englishman Charles Hayes. It was bought in 1 ...
'' every week named #FrontRow from 5 August 2014 until 8 February 2018. In Kenya, he is best known for hosting a popular Friday night show called ''#TheTrend'' on NTV Kenya from December 2012 until 30 June 2017.


Early life

Madowo grew up in various parts of
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
, including
Siaya Siaya is a municipality and the capital of Siaya County, Kenya. It is located northwest of Kisumu. The urban center had a population of 33,153 in 2019. Siaya municipality has five wards: Mjini, Siaya Central, Siaya East, Siaya North and Siaya ...
,
Kisumu Kisumu ( ) is the third-largest city in Kenya located in the Lake Victoria area in the former Nyanza Province. It is the second-largest city after Kampala in the Lake Victoria Basin. The city has a population of slightly over 600,000. The ...
and
Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
. He attended Usingo and Karapul primary schools and St Gabriel's Seminary for secondary education. He had intended to train as a catholic priest, but by the time he finished high school this had changed. In college, he studied broadcast journalism.


Journalism career

In 2006, Madowo enrolled for a Communication degree at Daystar University in Nairobi. In 2007, Madowo interned for a vernacular radio station Bahasha FM reading news in English. Madowo eventually dropped out of college a year and a half down his degree to take up a job at Kenya Television Network (KTN), one of Africa's oldest private television networks. He became one of the household names in Kenya and after three years, he left KTN for NTV, where he was a business anchor and reporter. In May 2012, he joined the South African-based
CNBC Africa Consumer News and Business Channel Africa (known as CNBC Africa) is an African pay television network launched on 1 June 2007. Founded by Rakesh Wahi and Zafar Siddiqi, the network is produced under license from CNBC International and is owned ...
as one of the main anchors of market day shows Open Exchange, Power Lunch and Closing Bell. His stay at CNBC Africa only lasted eight months and in December 2012, he went back to NTV as the technology editor and
news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
. Madowo returned to college and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication degree from Daystar University in June 2014. During his second tenure at NTV Kenya, he also freelanced for various global news outlets including CNN International, France 24 English, the BBC, and Public Radio International. When the Kenyan newspaper the ''
Daily Nation The ''Daily Nation'' is a Kenyan newspaper. It was founded in 1958 and is published in Nairobi. History The ''Daily Nation'' was started in the year 1958 as a Swahili weekly called ''Taifa'' by the Englishman Charles Hayes. It was bought in 1 ...
'' declined to publish a column critical of the Kenyan government's shutdown of four major private TV stations in early 2018, the opinion piece was published on the CNN website. He terminated his column and became a Contributing Columnist for the Washington Post's Global Opinions page. On 11 April 2018, it was announced that Madowo was joining BBC News Africa as Business Editor. He led a team of business journalists based in
Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
,
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...
,
Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...
and
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
. He has appeared across BBC World TV, BBC World Service Radio, BBC News channel in the UK, bbc.com and BBC Radio 4 as a reporter or commentator on African business. A radio documentary Madowo presented on the Chinese-built railway in Kenya won the Daily Journalism (Single Report) category at the 2019 Association of International Broadcasting Awards on 6 November 2019 in London. ''Raha: The Joy of the Train'' was part of a series produced by Peter Shevlin of British production company BlokMedia. On 9 April 2019, he was named among the 2019–2020 Knight-Bagehot Fellows at Columbia University. On 29 July 2019, Madowo said he was taking a sabbatical from the BBC for his fellowship at Columbia Journalism School. Madowo graduated from Columbia with a Master of Arts in Business and Economics Journalism on 20 May 2020. His master's thesis on African e-commerce pioneer Jumia's tumultuous first year on the New York Stock Exchange won the Philip Greer Scholarship Award for Financial Writing. He briefly contributed to the Guardian US and the BBC. Madowo marked his return to the BBC in a new role as a North America Correspondent in the summer of 2020 with a report from a Coronavirus Unit in
Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
. He reported across the United States primarily for
BBC World News BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...
and the
BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...
. He has filed reports from North Dakota, Georgia, Kentucky, New York, Louisiana, as well as South and North Carolina, among others. His coverage of the 2020 US election and inauguration of Joe Biden has been recognised around the world. He has interviewed some of the world's most prominent people including presidents, world-famous artists, global CEOs and Sophia the Robot. Madowo was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in March 2020. He was nominated as a One Young World Journalist of the Year in June 2020. He has twice been named among the 100 Most Influential Africans by ''New African'' magazine. Madowo was again cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by '' New African'' magazine in 2020. He became the first black person to deliver the Peter Stursberg Foreign Correspondents Lecture at Canada's Carleton University in December 2020. He has also referenced his work as a foreign correspondent in the United States in interviews by ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' and
NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
. In May 2021, Madowo was appointed as CNN's Nairobi correspondent. Two months later, in July 2021, CNN promoted him to international correspondent.


Views

Madowo self-identifies as a
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
, although he is quoted as saying that there is probably no God, suggesting that he holds agnostic views. He is critical of the religious in Kenya, having written in his old ''Daily Nation'' column "Atheists don't harm anyone, let them be!" that they exhibit the affliction of the inability to hold divergent views. This had come as a response to the outrage by religious Kenyans after the group, Atheists in Kenya, attempted to register themselves as an organization. He has spoken out about racism while writing about his experience as a black man in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Madowo became a vocal defender of press freedom in Africa after a run-in with the Kenyan government in 2018 forced him to seek shelter in a safe house. Alongside two other colleagues, they regained their freedom after a court granted them anticipatory bail. He has said that many other African journalists face greater dangers from their government, including threats to their lives.


Personal life

Madowo is also known to be very active on social media and has a combined following of over four million people across
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
, Twitter and Instagram. His sister Liz Madowo, a graduate of
Moi University Moi University is a public university located in Kesses, Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu county, in the former Rift Valley Province of Kenya. It was established in 1984 by the Moi University Act of the Parliament of Kenya, after recommendations from t ...
, is a stylist and fashion blogger. Madowo is also a regular moderator and speaker at media, technology and business conferences around the world.


References


External links


Larry Madowo's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madowo, Larry 1987 births Living people CNN Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Daystar University alumni Kenyan journalists Kenyan television journalists