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Verah Okeyo, born Veronicah Vashti Atieno Okeyo, is a Kenyan journalist, teacher and creative. Verah began her career in journalism in Nakuru where she came as a broadcast intern in 2012, before shifting to reporting on global health and has been known to be a health reporter ever since, building a loyal following for her radical coverage of health. Although her training was on broadcast journalism, Verah shifted to the newspaper and has been a print newspaper reporter ever since. She has won several awards in her practice in East Africa, and briefly in London and New York. In 2020, was also honored by the Kenyan President for her coverage of the COVID-19 in Kenya. In 2011, while in her undergraduate studies at Maseno University, Verah recorded her first music album sponsored by her friend Dave Hickson, who lives in Florida. She did not pursue music after she graduated from the university, and remained content in playing in bands occasionally.

Early Life
Verah Okeyo was born on August 15, 1987 in Migori (the current Migori County) to a nurse Rosemary Akinyi Olonde and a farmer Charles Okeyo Opiyo. She had an older sister who died of HIV in 2014, an older brother Allan and a younger brother Michael. When Verah as born, her mother left her with her father to pursue her nursing studies in her native Tanzania when Verah was barely three months old. Her father who worked in small companies at that time, left her and her siblings at their paternal grandfather in Ndhiwa in Homa Bay County where she spent most of her childhood. Her mother, a community nurse, moved throughout the Nyanza Province, often taking Verah with her in the rural areas, and taking her from one school to another. In the early 90s the family moved to Naivasha where her father was working as a supervisor in a flower company Sher Agencies Limited (now fallen Sher Karuturi Limited). In Naivasha, she attended Maua Primary School before transferring to Sher Moi Southlake Primary School where she sat her national primary examinations and got admitted to Bahati Girls Secondary School in Nakuru.

In 2004, in form two, both of Verah’s parents died. Immediately, her extended family took all the property and separated the siblings. Homeless and destitute, Verah dropped out of Bahati Girls to live with relatives attending day schools in Nyanza, before then head mistress of Bahati Girls’ Sister Magadalene Muinde looked for her and brought her back to school. Throughout high school, Verah spent her time in the convent and a few foster homes, relationships that she kept throughout her adult life. Throughout school, Verah excelled in athletics and academics. She was a member of the school's basketball, volleyball, netball and handball and ran track on a national level.

In various interviews, Verah has hinted at how her childhood in Naivasha was painful marked with heavy physical and sexual abuse that was covered up by her family, but shaped a lot of what she is. To escape, she spent most of her time in solitude reading magazines that her father picked from his Dutch employers. In the evening, she listened to English Radio service where her interest in textiles, music and the media grew. Her father, an avid collector of music informed her earlier tastes in music. The room that she slept in also acted as the store for her mother’s medical books and that, coupled with having a mother who was a nurse shaped her journalism to global health.

Education
Verah Okeyo is an alumni of Maseno University where she pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication and Media Technology with Information Technology. She majored in broadcast political journalism but did not practice on TV and chose to write. In 2017, Verah got a scholarship to the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK where she graduated with a Master’s of Science in Media and Communication.

Career
Verah Okeyo has worked in Nation Media Group for all her professional life. When she took a sabbatical from the newsroom in 2017 to pursue her studies, she practiced for three months writing for UK public Research Fortnight in Shoreditch London. She has had various fellowships that have taken her to Germany, South Africa, the Netherlands, Spain and USA often touching on science journalism, diversity and inclusion, data and digital journalism.

Awards

 * Zimeo Awards for Africa: Science journalism award (2015), 2016) Youth Reporting (2016)
 * Media Council of Kenya awards: Environmental Reporting (2015),
 * Gender reporting (2016)
 * Microsoft And ICFJ Grant Program Award