User:Elvismboya/Elvismboya

Elvis Mboya

Journalist, Author, Media Industrialist

Elvis Mboya, a surviving lineage of the late Tom Mboya - a pan-African nationalist and post Kenya’s independence cabinet minister under Founding President Jomo Kenyatta, is a Kenyan born Namibian leading journalist with over 10 years industrial expertise in southern African media and beyond. Mboya (30) is the Founder, Chair of Namibia’s Bid to host MTV MAMA/Channel O Music Video Awards and authoring South Africa’s TV celebrity/Big Brother Africa’s Stefan Ludik biography. He is Brand Executive of “Elvis Mboya” – a media, entertainment and branding firm. Mboya rose from being an orphaned Kenyan refugee in Namibia, to a CNN Africa Journalist Awards contestant - 2009, a media representative for the largest shows on the continent: Face of Africa, Big Brother Africa, MTV MAMA and Channel O Awards and Miss Namibia beauty pageant – 2008/2009. Mboya, described by mainstream media as controversial and outspoken, produced some work that featured/used on globally revered New York based MTV Radio, South Africa’s M-Net, StockHouse, USA/Canada, and Austria’s largest German daily DiePress. He contributed too, to Namibia/Zimbabwe’s Southern Times and Namibia’s national papers The Windhoek Observer, The Namibian and New Era. Mboya’s ascend to prominence skyrocketed when he worked for Namibia’s national weekly investigative/tabloid Informanté from 2006 to late 2009. At Informanté his Arts and Culture columns received triple nominations for the Namibia Media Awards Best Supportive Media 2008, Sanlam/NBC Music Awards Best Print Media 2008 and Best Columnist in 2007 for his then popular satire Ministry of Shebeens and Brew Affairs. He is also generally linked to have contributed to Informanté’s tabloid satirical column Rumazz. He co-presented Sanlam/NBC Music Awards for Best Female R&B 2008 to songbird, Tequila. Nationally, Mboya’s investigative work that covered Crime, Court, Parliamentary, Arts & Culture and Community reporting revealed some human interest stories that touched heart of the nation – that raising national uproar that compelled politicians to debate some of these thorny issues in parliament. Mboya is a pioneer journalist widely credited for revolutionising the Namibia’s post independence entertainment media through critical reporting and hard hitting front-page stories that stimulated both controversies and visible successes in the industry that was previously derailed by South Africa’s Apartheid regime when artists were banned from singing in public. Before he came, mainstream media barely gave entertainment news priority, save for caption stories and random profiles hidden in the inside pages. For the first time ever, he made entertainment stories headlines nationally, a development that generated enthusiasm and elevated media coverage of entertainment, creating arena for thousands of talents - that historically changed the industry. His benchmark tabloid/entertainment media fuelled proliferation of young talents doing the same in radio, TV and print, now hosting similar programmes and columns. In the process he unearthed some of the Namibia’s World class talents for the first time ever to the  country’s public that include Hollywood supermodel and Face of Victoria Secret, Behati Prinsloo and Namibia’s Canadian based golfer, Trevor Dodds. His investigations too, propelled UK based musician and top socialite Monika ‘Diamond’ Shafooli and Norwegian nurse tuned celebrity Camilla Juven to stardom. However, some tycoons of the industry banned him and colleagues entry to their business premises because of critical reporting. In his line of work, he interviewed and rubbed shoulders with continent’s lifestyle A-List that include industry’s captains: Face of Africa queens Kaone Kario (Botswana) and Kate Menson (Zambia), former Miss Universe Michelle McLean, Generations soapy superstar ‘Queen Moroka’ aka Sophie Ndaba, Namibia’s first Big Brother Housemate and Egoli-Place of Gold actor, Stefan Ludik, and Channel O iconic presenter, KB among others. In the same entertainment media industry, his outspoken and candid opinions are widely sought after that help set the industry’s agenda – as featured on Energy 100 FM Weekly Top 10 and Namibian Broadcasting Corporation’s Whatagwan episode. His opinions were featured on national daily The Namibian and weekly tabloid, The Namibian Sun. Two of his The Namibian Sun exposés are ranked the most read top 5 stories on the tabloid’s website - 2010. The Namibian Sun says that his daring investigative/tabloid reporting earned him “Masters Degree” while Informanté disdains him with “Godfather of Tabloid”. In 2008/2009, at barely 28, he was elected the Secretary-General of the Kenya Welfare Association in Namibia with over 1 000 members that boasts among others, professional expatriates and university dons. Earlier in 1998/99, he served as the Students President at Mosocho Academy (A Kenyan county private boarding institution that housed a primary and high school with a population of over 1,500 students) where he matriculated in 1999. In 2004/2005 he served at the Communications Desk at the High Commission of the Republic of Kenya - Windhoek. Educationally, his further studies suffered multiple blows when after being admitted at the following institutions of higher learning: Texas Southern University for a Degree in Criminal Justice in 2001; University of Namibia for a Degree in Economics in 2003 and at University of South Africa for the Degree of the Bachelor of Laws in 2005, he couldn’t continue when his financiers passed on. He is currently pursuing post-graduate degree in media and communication having attended career courses in Communication Science and Investigative Journalism. Known in native Simbi Kolonde village as ‘Kasee’ (Swahili word for a person named after an elder), Mboya was born October 2, 1979 in Kendu Bay at the shores of Lake Victoria (World’s second largest lake). He is the eighth born among nine children (four since deceased) sired by the late Bertha Anyango Ogalo and Jonathan Nyagwange Wandiga. Well travelled in East and Southern Africa for nearly a decade, Mboya maintains homes in Kenya and Namibia.