Veteran Journalist Hilary Ng’weno is Dead – LitKenya

Renowned Kenyan journalist and historian Hilary Boniface Ng’weno has passed away.

According to his family Ng’weno, 83, died on Wednesday 7th July at his home after a long illness.

Ng’weno was born in Nairobi in 1938. He grew up in Muthurwa, attended St Peter Cleavers, and later joined Mang’u High school for his O’levels.

He proceeded to Harvard University where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics. Ng’weno was the first Kenyan to study at Harvard University.

After graduating from Harvard, Ng’weno worked as a reporter for the Daily Nation for nine months before he was appointed the newspaper’s first Kenyan editor-in-chief. He resigned in 1965 and established a successful career as a journalist for more than forty years.

In 1973, together with journalist Terry Hirst, he founded Joe, a political satire comic magazine that circulated in many parts of Africa until the late seventies when its publication ceased.

Ng’weno is best known as the editor-in-chief of the Weekly Review, a weekly newsmagazine which he founded in 1975.

He is also the founder of The Nairobi Times and the first independent TV news station in Kenya, STV.

Ng’weno leaves behind his French wife Fleur Grandjouan Ng’weno, and two daughters Amolo and Bettina Ng’weno.

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