Larry Madowo Biography
Larry Madowo was born 14 July 1987 in Barding village in Siaya County. He is the Online and Technology Editor and News Anchor at NTV Kenya. He is a broadcast journalist, writer, blogger, and technology evangelist. He anchors the popular Friday night show #theTrend and NTV Weekend Edition.
He also hosts The Larry Madowo Show on Nation FM and writes a Tuesday column in the Daily Nation’s DN2 pullout called #FrontRow
He is one of the most recognizable faces in Kenyan media and is regularly called upon to host and moderate high profile events in the country and abroad. He writes a blog at larry madowo.co.ke and was the first African journalist with a verified Twitter page @LarryMadowo, where he has over 290,000 followers.
Larry Madowo Education Background
- 2006: Undergraduate student at Daystar University in Nairobi, Bachelor of Arts in Communication degree
- In 2007, Larry interned for a vernacular radio station Bahasha FM reading news in English. Larry eventually dropped out of college a year and a half down his degree to take up a job at Kenya Television Network, Africa’s oldest private television network
- 2001- 2004: High school student at St Gabriel’s Seminary School in Kisumu
- Ended 2000: Primary school student at Karapul Primary School in Siaya
Larry Madowo Job History
December 2012- To date: Technology editor and news anchor at NTV
May 2012: Senior anchor at the South African based CNBC Africa
- Larry became the first ever non-South African anchor to be based in CNBC Africa’s Johannesburg headquarters where he hosted live market shows Open Exchange, Power Lunch and Closing Bell. Larry Madowo also produced and presented the weekly show Eye on Kenya and hosted numerous CNBC Africa events and awards ceremonies. Larry Madowo has traveled to and reported from nearly 20 countries in 4 continents on such wide-ranging stories from manufacturing in China, Silicon Valley’s technology credentials in the US and tourism in Ghana.
October 2010: Business news Anchor, Reporter and editor at NTV.
- Here he launched the critically acclaimed PM Live and hosting the weekly magazine show Money Matters.
2008- October 2010: Employee at KTN
- he joined KTN as a Trainee Reporter. Afterward, he launched and anchored Kenya’s first daytime business program KTN Financial Markets Live as well as KTN Business Today. He also pioneered the use of social media on Kenyan television and was responsible for the formation of the KTN Kenya Facebook and Twitter pages before any other media house in the country had a social media presence.
- Larry Madowo was regularly called upon to anchor breaking news stories and report live on numerous occasions. Larry Madowo’s last major assignment at KTN was anchoring the station’s coverage of the 2010 referendum from the IIEBC’s Bomas of Kenya national tallying center.
In 2007: Intern at Bahasha FM
- Larry Madowo interned for a Naivasha based vernacular radio station Bahasha FM reading news in English. The Station was owned by John Mututho Chairman of NACADA
After the 2007/2008 post-election violence, the station was closed and he was rendered jobless.
Away from the journalism field, Larry Madowo worked for her aunt called Victoria in a restaurant in the Gikomba market in Nairobi where he would hawk tea and ‘Mandazi’ to other business people.
Larry Madowo Journalism Career
In 2006, Larry enrolled for a communications degree at Daystar University in Nairobi. In 2007, Larry interned for a vernacular radio station Bahasha FM reading news in English. Larry eventually dropped out of college a year and a half down his degree to take up a job at Kenya Television Network, Africa’s oldest private television network Larry’s became one of the household names in Kenya and after 3 years, he left KTN for NTV, where was the business news editor. In May 2012, he joined the South African based CNBC Africa as one of the main anchors and pioneered the show “Eye on Kenya” which airs on prime time. His stay at CNBC Africa only lasted a few months and in December 2012, he went back to NTV as the technology editor and news anchor.
Larry returned to college and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication degree from Daystar University.
Larry Madowo Family
Larry lost his dad in 1994 when he was 7 years old. His mother, Treazer Anyango Madowo, was a primary school teacher and a divisional Knut official who enthusiastically took part in the 1997 strike. She rallied her colleagues to go out onto the streets following a strike directive from the then KNUT officials John Katumanga and Ambrose Adongo Adeya,
Treazer Anyango Madowo died in 2001 leaving Larry Madowo and his only sister and sibling Liz Madowo orphans who had to fend for themselves.
His sister Liz Madowo is now a graduate of Moi University and is a stylist as well as a fashion blogger.
Larry Madowo Salary
Madowo is rumored to be earning something close to Ksh.500,000 per month. Apart from his salary, there are other perks to his job such as flying to foreign countries on assignment under the bill of Nation Media Group
Larry Madowo Car
Apart from having a very successful career and traveling to various countries, Madowo also has a great taste for cars, he currently rides a Mercedez Benz.
Larry Madowo Sister
Larry Madowo’s sister Liz Madowo is a graduate of Moi University and is a stylist as well as a fashion blogger.
Larry Madowo Girlfriend – Larry Madowo Dating
At 28 Larry Madowo is still single, an age when most people are married with kids. The interview where Larry Madowo revealed his relationship with girls…
Jeff: Do you have a girlfriend?
Larry Madowo : I don’t have an official girlfriend.
Jeff: (shocked) Is there an unofficial girlfriend?
Larry Madowo: I don’t have an unofficial girlfriend for the benefit of doubt.
Jeff: Reason being.
Larry Madowo: I haven’t found somebody who deserves me and who can keep up with me coz I’m a handful -we can do auditions. The Bachelor at KICC on Saturday.
Jeff: You’re in no hurry? Is that what you’re saying?
Larry Madowo: Yes…in Kenya there is almost this cycle you need to go through: you go to school, you finish college you get married in that order. But life doesn’t always work like that. What if I want to go back to priesthood?
Jeff: (confused)But you do like girls?
Larry: I do like girls.
Larry Madowo News
Larry Madowo Selected to Host Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona
Updated:06/02/2019
Kenyan BBC Africa Business Editor, Larry Madowohas been selected to host the Global Mobile Awards 2019 (GLOMO), which takes place from the 25th to the 28th of February.
According to an excerpt from the official GLOMO press release, Larry was selected due to his wealth of experience, having reported from more than 40 countries and interviewed some of the world’s most prominent business, political and cultural leaders.
The BBC Africa editor will also present selected awards throughout the week leading to the event.
The awards, which are regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of the tech-world, feature an afternoon ceremony on 26th February where over 100,000 guests are expected.
Head of Global System for Mobile Communications Ltd (GSMA), John Hoffman revealed that internationally acclaimed annual ceremony aims at shedding light on innovative tech-based ideas.
“The GLOMOs provide a world stage to celebrate the most inspirational and innovative developments across our industry, recognizing the companies and individuals leading the way in everything; from 5G to emerging markets, to intelligent connectivity,” he asserted.
The Kenyan journalist will host the event alongside Remel London, an award-winning TV anchor, online video blogger, and radio presenter.
Safaricom’s M-Pesa Global which was launched in November 2018, has been nominated for the global award under the Best Mobile Innovation for Commerce category.
The innovation is a mobile phone-based money transfer solution that enables one to send and receive money through international money transfer services such as Western Union.
Larry Madowo’s story: How an orphaned boy became a household name in Kenya
Updated: 21.12.2017
Losing a parent is one of the most devastating things that can happen to a child. The death of a parent is a profound loss.
Despite losing both parents at a young age of 14, Larry Madowo established himself as one of the biggest names in Kenya television who went against all odds to be successful in life.
Speaking to African Voices on CNN, Larry said that his childhood posed a lot of challenges. The fact that he was a poor orphan did not dampen his quest for success.
‘’I grew up with little privilege, my earliest memories are not having the things other kids had. I would go to school and hear the other kids talk about what their dads and their moms did and I didn’t have that.’’ He said.
He is a Kenyan journalist and news anchor who specializes in technology, current affairs, and entertainment
Larry currently works for Kenya’s NTV as Anchor and Technology Editor but has worked for other major networks including Kenya Television Network and CNBC Africa.
He started hosting an eponymous radio show on Nation FM from August 2014 titled The Larry Madowo Show. He also writes a column in the Daily Nation every Tuesday titled #FrontRow. In addition to this, he hosted a popular Friday night show called TheTrend on NTV until 23 June 2017.
Too successful after ‘failing’ KCSE, Larry Madowo reveals his grade
Updated 09.03.2016
I failed the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams. I flunked so badly, that some of my relatives were sufficiently scandalized to demand that I repeat Form Four and apply myself better.
That was never going to happen as I had already developed a healthy disdain for academics in general, and its most favored method of torture in particular – examinations.
During the exam period, I stayed up late with my colleagues, but not to revise like they were doing. I was burning the midnight oil finishing a good novel. Pretending to catch up on what I had missed over the last four years was a waste of perfectly good electricity. I never went back.
Back then, an A grade meant something, and we didn’t have the national exams circulating on WhatsApp days before it was Sat. Those who came out with that all-important top grade were the crème of the education system, assured of the “lucrative courses” such as medicine, actuarial science, and architecture.
The rest trooped to Bachelor of Arts degrees, or Bachelor of Being Around, as they are known in campus halls. Overall, 78 percent of students currently in tertiary institutions of learning are studying arts and humanities courses. Only 22 percent go into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
The 2015 KCSE exam results lost all meaning, with a record number of A grades recorded. The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) wanted the exam postponed and decried the ministry’s intransigence that allowed it to go on.
Knut Secretary-General, Wilson Sossion, was still livid after the results were announced, slamming the credibility of the whole exercise. Watching in the studio, education lecturer, Dr. Andrew Riechi, vigorously agreed. All Education Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i said was that the exams were carried out “under fairly challenging circumstances”. An understatement does not even begin to describe it.
WIDESPREAD CHEATING
What is obvious is that there was widespread cheating in last year’s exam. Official statistics say there was a 70 percent rise in cheating, with 5,101 cases reported, but those are just the ones that got caught. Many people agree that cases of cheating were much higher.
A meme doing the rounds after the results were announced couldn’t have put it better in its snark. “If your child did not score an A, it is because they were too dumb to even remember answers to a paper they had already seen.” That is the sad truth – the papers were everywhere. Any student with access to the Internet and a little opportunity could have obtained the actual exam papers at least a day before.
Even after all the cheating evidence was presented to the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec), the Ministry of Education and the police, almost nothing was done.
“All reported cases have been exhaustively investigated using procedures that have been put in place to ensure that standards are maintained from year to year,“ Dr. Matiang’i said. Most of the students who scored As would probably fail spectacularly if they were subjected to a pre-university entrance exam.
Unofficially, there are countless stories of terribly average performers who still ended up with strong As when the final results came out. None of these were miracles, despite what their parents and teachers would want you to think.
The obvious question is why an A is so highly regarded as if it were a key to a lifetime of success and prosperity. The obvious answer is that in most cases, it is. As a result, the pressure to perform is so high, that most students would do anything just to get there.
If a teacher, or parent, offers to give them the exact paper they will sit, they will not think twice about it. In 2015, everyone was doing it, so it must have been even harder to resist, knowing that undeserving halfwits would do better than you. Now the floodgates have been opened as schools will try to outdo their previous results. It will be an open season this year.
I left high school with a B minus, the final sentence after four years of massive potential but hardly any focus. I was dead set against repeating, so I had to make the best of it and I would like to think I did.
Fully aware of my limited abilities but with a seemingly innate talent for obfuscation, I set out in search of a career where this might be useful.
Law narrowly lost out to journalism as I decided to talk up my non-existent skills into gainful employment. Much to everyone’s amazement — mine the most — I convinced a bunch of suits to hire me. So you see, an A is not everything.
Larry Madowo brushes Raila Odinga the wrong way
In 2016, after the former Prime Minister released the much-awaited Eurobond dossier, Larry Madowo sent out a tweet terming the list as “nothing more than a fart”.
“Show of hands, who else was expecting an explosive list from Raila Odinga and all we got was nothing more than a fart?” he posed.
His tweet sparked outrage from CORD supporters who called for his immediate dismissal from NTV arguing that he lacked the objectivity expected from a journalist.
Larry Madowo later deleted the tweet and apologized for his offensive remarks.
“I apologize for my explosive Eurobond tweet and I’ve deleted it,” he said on Twitter. “The responses have degenerated into a tribal war & that wasn’t my intention.” But CORD supporters are having none of it.
Through his Front Row column, Larry Madowo said that he has received threats to his life. “I was insulted in every way possible by thousands on social media and there were more than a few credible threats to my life which I will be reporting to the police. Several people even promised physical violence should I show up at certain places. I was accused of having been paid by Jubilee to tarnish the name of Baba”
He also highlights a series of insults directed at him by Raila’s supporters and says that he has learned that Raila Odinga is not to be contradicted by a fellow tribesman.
“What I learnt is that the former prime minister is not to be contradicted, especially by a fellow tribesman, at all costs. CORD bloggers, supporters and just about everyone with an O name condemned me in the strongest terms possible,” he wrote.
Larry Madowo Blog
Larry Madowo is a broadcast journalist, writer, blogger, and technology evangelist. He is a former Online and Technology Editor and News Anchor at NTV Kenya. Larry Madowo blogs at http://larrymadowo.co.ke/
Larry Madowo Contacts
https://www.facebook.com/LarryMadowo