A broadcast journalist with the Nation Media Group, East Africa’s largest media house, Mercy Juma is always looking for opportunities to grow in journalism. This is why she applied for the2013 Internews Health and Data Journalism Fellowship.

 She reported for the fellowship on August 19 her eyes shining with expectation. “I hope that the fellowship will make me an all-rounder health journalist who tells story that have impact” she says.

 She developed an interest in journalism when she was a student at Moi University, after a stint as a reporter and editor at the university’s radio station.

Her relentless pursuit of knowledge has seen her attend several workshops among them the Youth Leadership and Succession Politics by Internews in Kenya.  “I covered the 2013 General Election effectively as a reporter because of the training I got from Internews.”

Mercy's Stories;

When the sun sets in Turkana; Hunger stakes and stripes in the North

This was the headline story on NTV on January 21. The 12-minute, data driven story reveals that malnutrition in children is a growing problem in Kenya as famine become more intense and frequent.

There was massive reaction to the story from individuals and organizations, which led the station to establish a relief fund for Turkana County as explained in the follow up story: Cases of malnutrition on the rise in Turkana hospitals by Mercy.

The print version of the story Famine strikes again was as the cover story in DN2, an insert in the Daily Nation. She followed up the article with the TV story, Hunger keeps children away from school in Turkana . Since then there have been prominent stories in the media daily on desperate famine situation in Northern Kenya in the local media daily by other journalists. Her first story during the fellowship a 10-minute TV story, Grave choices, aired on NTV The print version of this story was published as a cover story in The Daily Nation ‘s DN2 and on the newspaper‘s online platform.