Mbitiru leaves behind a widow, Wanja and two sons, Njihia and Nyaga. “It showed not only Chege’s talents as a reporter and writer but his great love for his country and the pain its people were suffering.” “It was a story I know we were both proud of,” said Lederer.
Lederer said she worked with Mbitiru that week to put together a story on the timeline of how the bombing unfolded. It was a very emotional time, but Lederer said Mbitiru “was a reporter first and foremost - describing the scene vividly, with great quotes and color.” Embassy bombing on Augand arriving the following morning, just before Mbitiru came in from the bombed-out site where survivors and victims were being pulled from the debris. “That gesture showed what a truly nice man he was,” said Selsky.ĪP’s chief correspondent at the United Nations, Edith Lederer, recalls flying to Nairobi from London immediately after the U.S. “More than that, he was one of the sweetest, most tolerant men I have ever known.”Īndrew Selsky, who had worked on AP’s international desk and later was Africa Editor, said that Mbitiru had kindly sent him a Swahili-English dictionary. “He was the go-to guy for background information about Kenya, its politics, history, customs and more,” said Miller. Miller, former East African bureau chief. An English language edition called Daily Nation was published on October 3, 1960, in a process organised by former editor of the British News Chronicle. It was bought in 1959 by the Aga Khan, and became a daily newspaper, Taifa Leo (Swahili for 'Nation Today'), in January 1960. Mbitiru was an invaluable member of AP’s Nairobi team, said Reid G. The Daily Nation was started in the year 1958 as a Swahili weekly called Taifa by the Englishman Charles Hayes. “Some of the best books on my Africa bookshelf were recommended by him.” “He would always mix his smart, many times sarcastic, comments about the news with a chat that would connect the extraordinary events that raged across Africa in the mid-90s with conflicts in Latin America,” said Ricardo Mazalan, the East Africa chief photographer in the mid-1990s. His calm demeanor and charm was always an anchor in trying times,” said Terry Leonard, who was an AP correspondent in Nairobi from 1994 to 1996. We worked closely together during the intervention in Somalia and the genocide in Rwanda. “Chege was a good friend and colleague who, with a wry sense of humor, taught the rest of us about Africa. Returning to Kenya he worked for the Kenya News Agency and later for the Daily Nation newspaper as foreign editor and then managing editor before joining the AP.ĭuring his time at AP he is remembered for his humor and friendly way of sharing his deep knowledge of East Africa and the continent.
and after graduating from Ohio University he worked for the Sandusky Register in Ohio and the Saginaw News in Michigan. When Mbitiru finished high school he went to the U.S.
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