From Kakamega classroom to Thika newsroom: what teaching gave me

Before any of this, I taught English Literature and History to secondary school students in Kakamega. It is a job that looks nothing like broadcasting from the outside. From the inside, it is nearly the same skill.

A classroom does not care how well you understand something. It only cares whether you can make it clear to someone who does not yet. Teenagers, in particular, have no patience for a teacher who is performing knowledge instead of sharing it. They will tell you, one way or another, the moment you lose them.

That is the exact discipline live television demands. An audience does not care how complex the story is behind the scenes. They care whether you can make it clear in the two minutes you have, without losing the truth of it along the way.

When I moved into radio and TV hosting in Thika, shows like Rhumba Jouissance and The Overview Show, I was surprised how much of my teaching instinct carried over directly: read the room, adjust the pace, never assume the last thing you said landed the way you meant it to.

I left the classroom, but I never stopped teaching. I just changed the size of the room.