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Patrick Kihara
Project Writer Consultant , International non-profit
Nairobi, Kenya
Experienced editor, writer, translator (French-English and Swahili-English) and journalism trainer. I delivered a breaking news and features service at the BBC covering Sub-Sahara Africa and the Middle East. I have also enjoyed writing and coordinating global communication on climate change and resilience to disasters and conflict.
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Area of Expertise:
  • Capacity Building, Training, Advocacy
  • Communications, Media, Knowledge Management, Editor
Professional Experience:
As a Project Consultant Writer, I coordinated and produced a variety of public information and communication material for UN Environment’s Resilience to Disasters and Conflicts Programme. This output was disseminated through various platforms such as UNEnvironment.org as well as related social media platforms.
In addition, I also liaised with other colleagues in various divisions, and externally, to plan communication strategies around various themes and events such as conferences, international days and internal briefing sessions aimed at promoting programme communication work. This involved scheduling meetings in different time zones, continents, and languages.
Previously, and for 16 years, as a multilingual (English, French, Swahili) Digital Journalist/Trainer in the BBC I planned editorial production, trained staff and promoted the use of various digital tools to tell important political, social and economic stories.
This involved working with geographically-dispersed teams that covered sub-Saharan Africa in 21 languages and produced multimedia output in various formats such as news alerts, country insight pieces, profiles, and social media highlights which explained the context behind various issues. It also involved appearance on various BBC broadcast outlets.
Some of the stories that I covered ranged from the conflicts in DR Congo and South Sudan, to Burundi's third-term crisis, and Burkina Faso's ouster of Blaise Compaore and the subsequent restoration of civilian rule. Others focused on women's rights in countries such as Sudan and the state of media and internet freedom in Africa.
This coverage was achieved through collaboration with a network of partners and freelancers in eastern DR Congo, Ghana, Kenya Mali, Malawi, South Sudan, Somalia and Tanzania among other countries. Between 2010 and 2015, the Nairobi office was responsible for editing of news copy originating from partners in UAE, Israel and Jordan and during this period I was part of the team that wrote the weekly Iraq Media Review.
My role also involved liaising with other BBC teams based in Egypt, the UK and India as well as external media partners in central, west, and southern Africa. As a senior editorial trainer I facilitated, and delivered, a broad range of bespoke writing and digital media courses for in-house journalists and freelancers in the Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The training was delivered either in-person or remotely through use of audio or videoconferencing.

I also championed the use of digital tools to track developments and to enhance editorial output. This included training BBC journalists across Africa to use digital media platforms (such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Instagram) and related analytic tools such as Dataminr, Crimson Hexagon. I also promoted the use of web content aggregators such as Google Alerts, Spredfast and Feedly to enhance newsgathering. This ensured a consistent stream of unique news and features.
Education:
I undertook a Bachelor of Education (Arts) majoring in French and Economics. Over the course of my career I have also undertaken numerous training courses. These have ranged from from management, to trainer of trainers, as well as a wide range of journalism-related courses on topics such as copyright, libel, pitching for news outlets, writing multiplatform content, covering crises among others.

I am open to discussing how I can enrich your organisation's work.
Available for:
  • Consulting assignments
  • Job opportunities
  • Being headhunted – make me an offer

    Years of Experience:
    15-20 years
    Highest Qualification:
    Bachelors
    Languages:
    English, French, Swahili
    Nationality:
    Kenya
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