Hilary Ng’weno died on July 1, 2021. He was 83. The Harvard-educated nuclear physicist who became one of Kenya’s most iconic journalists and leading popular history documentary-maker, in 1964 became the first black editor-in-chief of the Daily Nation, and at 26 its youngest, after just nine months at the paper as a reporter.
He resigned a year later and went off to start what would be serial entrepreneurship in media. Walking away from editorial honcho at Nation at the time was something you didn’t do. It reveals a lot about Ng’weno’s temperament that he did. A fussy genius, he didn’t suffer fools gladly. Speaking his truth softly, he was controversial and managed to ruffle many feathers. He also went on to start Kenya’s first private TV station, STV.
