The life history of Veteran TV News Anchor Catherine Kasavuli who died of cervical cancer

Legendary broadcaster, Catherine Kasavuli, has died. She passed away on Thursday night at KNH where she was receiving treatment

By Fidel Mbaraka, Nairobi

Veteran TV News Anchor Catherine Kasavuli has died. Kasavuli who was born in 1962 died while undergoing cancer treatment on December 29, this year at Kenyatta National Hospital.

The Ngara Girls High School alumni was aged 60 years old at the time of his death. He was born and raised in Nairobi West but her ancestral home is in Vihiga County.

KBC acting Managing Director Samuel Maina confirmed his death. “Legendary broadcaster, Catherine Kasavuli, has died. She passed away on Thursday night at KNH where she was receiving treatment,”

Kasavuli had been admitted at the facility since October 26. She had recently returned on TV after KBC hired her among veterans to revamp the media house and revamp its image in the media industry.

Kasavuli was the first female news anchor in the country and had previously worked in other leading television stations including KBC, Citizen TV and KTN.

Kasavuli started her career as a radio continuity announcer in 1980 at the Voice of Kenya (VoK) and later renamed KBC.

 Her uncle, who had listened to her reading the Bible and praying for dinner, advised her to apply for the job. She was barely 18 years at the time and heeding to the advice, she secured the job at KBC. She would later transition to television at the company in 1985.

At the time of her employment, she had no prior professional training and two years into her job, she went to the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC) to study a Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication.

 In March 1990, Catherine became part of the founding team of KTN as the first privately owned television station in the country. She became the station’s first anchor to go on live broadcast, a shift from the previous pre-recorded format and also used to voice commercials to supplement her earnings.

After being at KTN for 17 years, Kasavuli left the station in 2007 to join Royal Media Service, Citizen TV.

“Today I got a surprise visit from my nephew. His visit brought so much memory back to my mind; with the fact that we lost his mom 5 years ago to this deadly monster cancer – but what I enjoyed much about our conversation is what that loss did to us, it made us stronger, wiser, united as a family and most importantly our individual strengths in the Lord has been renewed ever since,” Ms Kasavuli wrote.

She later held the position of corporate affairs manager at Royal Media Services, the parent company of Citizen TV.  In 2015, Kasavuli retired from the limelight to work behind the screens.

However, towards the end of July 2021, eight years after leaving television, Kasavuli made a grand comeback and graced the Kenyan TV screens after signing a deal with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) where she anchored weekend news.

In an interview after her comeback, she stated, “I wanted to come to KBC to train anchors to hone their skills but never expected an offer of this magnitude.” Despite her famous public personality and unlike her successors in the Kenyan media space, the soft spoken and ever-smiling anchor preferred to keep her personal life private.

“Five years later, it strikes again, but this time around, well prepared, courageous, optimistic and thankful for every new day I get to hope courageously. I can’t stop thanking each and every person that’s really been there for me since day one, thank you so much. To every soul that’s contributed towards my medical bill, May God bless you. To anyone still willing to contribute towards my bill kindly get in touch on DM (direct message) will share the contribution channel.” Kasavuli wrote

Kasavuli has one son, Martin, who was born in 1981. Catherine has reportedly stated that she had to leave him home to attend to her demanding career and regrets missing the early moments of his childhood. After retiring from television, she founded Kasavuli Media Group Limited which owns several subsidiaries including a training school for broadcasters.

In her last social media post, she foresaw her death and wrote: –

 “Today I got a surprise visit from my nephew. His visit brought so much memory back to my mind; with the fact that we lost his mom 5 years ago to this deadly monster cancer – but what I enjoyed much about our conversation is what that loss did to us, it made us stronger, wiser, united as a family and most importantly our individual strengths in the Lord has been renewed ever since,” Ms Kasavuli wrote.

She continued, “Five years later, it strikes again, but this time around, well prepared, courageous, optimistic and thankful for every new day I get to hope courageously. I can’t stop thanking each and every person that’s really been there for me since day one, thank you so much. To every soul that’s contributed towards my medical bill, May God bless you. To anyone still willing to contribute towards my bill kindly get in touch on DM (direct message) will share the contribution channel.”

In her last ever communication with her followers, Ms Kasavuli reassured them, “I’m feeling much better, taking one day at a time and being strong in the Lord Jesus.”

……..more to follow………………