Vision Group's Caroline Ariba wins David Astor award

After a rigorous six-month review and assessment, Vision Group's Caroline Ariba has beaten 30 locally nominated journalists from East Africa to the much coveted 2016 David Astor Journalism awards programme.

The programme, which is part of the David Astor Journalism Awards Trust (DAJAT), supports up-and-coming journalists in East Africa.

Ariba was selected along with Kenya's Frankline Sunday, 29, a business reporter with The Standard in Nairobi.

The two journalists now join 18 previous Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian award winners as career-long members of a growing professional network of leading journalists in the region, supported by DAJAT.

Here, Caroline in London receiving the 2015 Foreign Press Association's Thomson Young Journalists Award for journalists from the developing world last November. (Credit: FPA)

As part of the award, Ariba and Sunday will undertake work experience attachments with newspapers in the UK and South Africa for a total of three months, offering them exposure to different news reporting environments and opportunities to expand their professional capabilities.

They also each received a nominal cash award of $500 (about sh1.75m) from the Joffe Charitable Trust.

Jim Meyer, the Trust's Executive Director said the two journalists were selected for their outstanding potential, integrity, determination and long-term commitment to African journalism, and having the requisite qualities to excel in the profession.

"Caroline and Frankline clearly have what it takes to become truly great African journalists. We are delighted to have the chance now to invest in and support their continuing professional growth and development," he said in a press release Tuesday.

Ariba said she was elated to have won the award which she knows will advance her career.

 A features writer at Vision Group, Ariba has won several journalism awards among them the Tumaini award, the African center for Media Excellence award, 2013 and 2014 and more recently- the Foreign Press Association's Thomson Young Journalists Award for journalists from the developing world.

John Eremu, the features editor and Ariba's supervisor said her success is the success of Vision Group too and her experience in the UK  and South Africa will sharpen her skills

DAJAT is a UK charity founded in 2006 to promote, strengthen and support independent journalism in Africa.

It honours the late, distinguished editor of The Observer newspaper in London from 1948 to 1975, who was a lifelong champion of African development, human rights, and other social justice causes.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is Patron of the Trust.

DAJAT Selection process

• May 2015: Candidate-selection process begins with a call for local media houses, journalism trainers, civil society organisations, and David Astor Network members to nominate one candidate each.
  
  
• September 2015: After reviewing written applications from the nominees and examples of their work, 11 shortlisted candidates each from Kenya and Uganda are interviewed.
  
  
• Second opinion interviews are then conducted with the candidates' nominators, employers, and other local sources before choosing the finalists.
  
  
• January 24th & 26th: Panel individually interview three finalists in Nairobi to choose the winners.

Caroline Ariba is pictured here receiving the ACME award last year from the Chief Justice of Uganda Bart Katureebe. (Credit: Kennedy Oryema)

And here, Ariba (third from right), poses in a group photo of Vision Group winners of various ACME awards in 2014. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)