Victoria Rubadiri, 37, is a Kenyan journalist and TV anchor working with CNN International in Kenya.
Her unique deep voice, refined English, and high sense of fashion keep people glued to their screens every time she comes on. She lives a low-key life and has only taken a few press interviews about her life her entire career.
Early Family Life
Here are the few details that we’ve gathered so far about her life:
Victoria Rubadiri’s mother is a Kalenjin-Masaai and her father is of Malawian nationality. She spent part of her childhood in Kenya but schooled in the United States.
Victoria is a Kenyan citizen by birth. Her American citizenship is subject to contention since it’s not clear if she applied and acquired one, having lived and schooled in the USA for many years. Due to her father’s nationality, she is also Malawian.
Victoria’s ancestry is a cocktail. It is a mixture of European and African roots. Rubadiri’s grandmother has Kikuyu, Maasai, and Seychellois roots, while her grandfather was half Kalenjin and half Scottish.
She grew up in a strict Christian home.
Education
She joined Atlantic City High School in Atlantic County, New Jersey, in 1999. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2009.
Before graduating, Victoria interned, at WMGM-NBC40 TV, as an Assignment Desk Editor in 2007 and was a personal assistant at Angela Crockett Company in Brooklyn, New York, in 2008.
Her sibling, Mabel Rubadiri, attended Oxford University.
Journalism Career
Victoria became a presenter and reporter, at the late Chris Kirubi’s owned Capital FM, Nairobi between April 2011 and December 2012.
Rubadiri later landed a job at NTV. She was a news anchor, reporter, and script editor. Larry Madowo and Victoria Rubadiri co-anchored NTV’s Prime Time Weekend Edition. She also hosted the Victoria’s Lounge show on the same TV station.
Rubadiri was poached by Citizen TV in May 2018 to work as a senior news anchor and won the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award in 2020 while there.
She took a break from Citizen TV and traveled to BBC London in mid-2021. The 3-month placement at the BBC, saw her undergo training at the BBC Academy. She joined the BBC News teams – across TV, radio, and online – where she got the opportunity to gain skills and experience across the platforms.
This was part of her 2020 Komla Dumor Award.
She returned formally in December 2021.
Fun Facts About Victoria
- She is the sixth person to win the BBC World News Komla Dumor Award. The award was created in 2014 in honor of Komla Dumor, a presenter for BBC World News, who died suddenly at 41 in 2014.
- Waihiga Mwaura, a Komla Dumor award winner as well, joined the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) as a senior news anchor for the Focus on Africa program.
- Rubadiri is one of the best-paid female news anchors in Kenya. She earned about Ksh 400,000 monthly at NTV. Citizen TV upped it by over 300, 000 and counting. She also enjoys upwards of Ksh. 100,000 for wardrobe allowance.
Personal Life
Victoria Rubadiri shared her life, from childhood to being a top Kenyan media personality, on NTV’s Woman Without Limits show by Reverend Kathy Kiuna.
She was an 18-year-old high school student in the USA when she got pregnant. Her parents did all they could to put her back on track and made sure she finished her education and excelled.
Nothing much is known about her daughter’s father. She’s never shared any pictures of him or dropped any name.
From Citizen TV to CNN
Victoria now hosts CNN’s long-running series Connecting Africa and is a part of the network’s news-gathering operation in Nairobi.
Madowo, his former tag team at NTV, who hosts African Voices Changemakers and a CNN international correspondent, welcomed her to the network.
Rubadiri joins the team to tell stories on emerging and expanding businesses across Africa and explore the impacts of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement as the program enters its fifth year.
