Catherine Kasavuli is a famous and successful media personality. A household name that has over the years warm the hearts of television viewers with her poise, excellent diction and ready smile. With a career spanning at least thirty years in the media industry she has defied age and looks younger year after year.
Catherine Kasavuli was born and raised in Nairobi West and went to Ngara Girls High School, but she wouldn’t say her life revolved around town. Her father would drive her and her four siblings to the village for a two-week vacation during the long school holidays.
Her journey in the media began in 1980 as a radio continuity announcer when her uncle who listened to her reading the Bible and praying for dinner told her to go for it.
Barely 18 at that time, he told her that she had a remarkable voice and that her expression, articulation and diction was also very good and urged her to try her luck at the Voice of Kenya where there was a vacancy and that’s how she ended up going for an interview. She would later join television in 1985.
Thrown into the deep end with no professional training (she went to Kenya Institute of Mass Communication two years into her job), Catherine was initially timid and it took her a while to sit in the office.
The glamorous TV presenter who would later command stellar pay packages began her career on KSh 1,500 a month, although she earned a few extra coins voicing commercials. She would earn around KSh 3,500 from commercials. One time in 1985, she earned KSh 25,000 from a commercial and those days that was like KSh 2 million!
When KTN first went on air in March 1990, Kasavuli was part of the team that saw the country’s first privately owned station broadcasted 24/7. She was instrumental in changing the station’s News from a pre-recorded format to a live broadcast and she was the first anchor to ever host a live broadcast at the station.
At the time, the seasoned News anchor played a big role in discovering talented reporters and News anchors and even after, continued to do so at Royal Media Services as the corporate affairs.
The mother of one has received numerous awards for her role in the media but one particular accolade she is extremely proud of is the ‘Order of Grand Warrior of Kenya’ which she received from retired President, Mwai Kibaki ten years ago.
She has inspired a generation of News anchors and more so women and is still raring to take on the media industry. Catherine Kasavuli is a trailblazer, an icon and a much celebrated News anchor.
COMMENTS
Stephen ouma April 26, 2018 at 4:37 pm
Good read
Saidi Abdallah April 30, 2018 at 11:21 am
Thank you Stephen. Do subscribe for more such read.
Esterinasoni April 26, 2018 at 10:14 pm
she’s just amazing
Thankyou for renewing this beautiful soul in our minds again
Saidi Abdallah April 30, 2018 at 11:21 am
Thank you Esterinasoni for reading, we appreciate. Subscribe for more such read.
Consolata Nyandiko January 15, 2023 at 1:04 pm
May her soul rest in eternal peace