Denis Gathanju gets nominations to prestigious African awards
For every journalist, experienced or novice, it is excruciatingly exciting when you read your published article in a newspaper, magazine or ezine. The excitement boils a couple of degrees over when you get recognition for your work and it is placed on the table by a panel of experienced writers, critics and editors and benchmarked against the best works from some of the most prolific writers in the world.
That said, I am happy to say that some of my published works have been nominated to the prestigious Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards 2010.
They include:
Best Tourism Feature – A feature titled Kenya: Spa Country published in the Chicago-based SkinInc Magazine that profiles the development of a new tourism product in Kenya, the Spa. Kenya has long relied on its traditional beach and safari tourism products and the addition of beauty and health wellness further complements the tourism product and enhances Kenya’s image as a top tourist destination offering a superior product. The spa industry in Africa is less advanced, even South Africa, though they boast a huge and advanced industry, theirs is still in the parturient stages of development. The feature also profiles some of Kenya’s best spas including the Maisha Spa at the Serena Beach Resort, the Tulia Spa at the Whitesands Mombasa, the Sunrise Spa at Sunrise Resort in Nyali and the Silver Spa at the Silver Springs Hotel in Nairobi.
Best Infrastructure Feature – Under this category, my editors have entered two features.
- The first one; titled Nairobi rethinks its Planning Strategy was published by the America Planning Association Magazine. It details the Nairobi Vision 2030 planning strategy that was launched by the Ministry of the Nairobi Metropolitan Authority in December 2008. It highlights the partnership between the Nairobi Metropolitan Authority and the United Nations Human Settlements Agency (UN-HABITAT) that is geared towards transforming Nairobi into a world-class African metropolis through engagement and heavy investment into planning and infrastructure development and expansion.
- A second feature titled; Nairobi: Africa’s Premier Aviation Hub? Published in January/February 2010 by the UK-based Airports International documents the strategic expansion of Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport into an African aeropolis (a self-contained airport city). The feature highlights the progressive expansion of national carrier Kenya Airways, through which, passenger and cargo traffic into and out of JKIA has more than quadrupled. It also highlights the development of the new Terminal 4 at the facility, the expansion of Terminal 3 and the Nairobi Cargo Village to handle increased passenger and cargo capacity.
Best Agri-Business Feature – In this category, the feature published by South Africa-based IPS Africa that documents the hard times that Tanzanian farmers are facing thanks to the changing climate. The feature samples the plight of farmers in the Iringa Province in south-eastern Tanzania and their counterparts in the Kilimanjaro region in northern Tanzania who have been hard hit by the erratic weather patterns that have turned farming into a gamble with nature.
Scooping the awards in either of these categories will no doubt embolden me to achieve more and bring out the positive business stories of Kenya and Africa.