Idah Waringa Moves To China, Lands New Role After NTV Exit

Former NTV sports anchor, Idah Waringa revealed on Wednesday, March 29 that she bagged a new role after moving to China.

She posted a photo of herself posing behind the iconic building that is the headquarters of China Global Television Network (CGTN).

Moreover, she disclosed that she was appointed the news editor of CGTN's English version and moved away from her love of sports, which she was long known for in the Kenya media space.

Idah Waringa posing behind CGTN Headquarters in Beijing, China on March 29, 2023. /IDAH WARINGA

"Hi. Some life news. Moved to Beijing, and became a News Editor with CGTN English at HQ.

"Moved on from my beloved sports and onto a new challenge," she captioned.

The move comes nearly eight months since Viral Tea learnt that she departed the Nation Media Group (NMG), with multiple sources neither establishing why she left the station nor what her next move would be.

She had then revealed to this writer that she left NTV three months prior, a station whereby she spent her three years and where she rose to become one of Kenya's biggest female anchors in the sports division.

The multimedia sports journalist, events moderator and social media marketer joined NMG in October 2018 from Radio Africa Group where she worked as a sports reporter and anchor. She is an alumnus of the United States International University- Africa (USIU) and holds a Masters degree in Digital Communication and Media from Aga Khan University. 

Globally, she contributes to the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) where she was one of seven reporters selected from Africa – and the only one chosen from Kenya – by AIPS to cover the All Africa Games (African Games) through the Young Reporters Program. She also contributes to the Planet Sport Football Africa show under Passion For Sport Productions.

She has also appeared several times on the Premier League Productions show Headline Makers and writes for Al Jazeera English.

In 2018, her short documentary Acakoro: From Grass to Grace, emerged as the first runner-up in Africa, in the best Video Documentary category at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. This was the same documentary that won the Best Kenyan Story at the 2018 Kenya International Sports Film Festival.

In November 2019, she was chosen by the Egyptian government to receive the Excellence Award for Young African Journalists in Sports. She also won the 2019 Excellence Award For Young African Journalists in Sports, issued by the Government of Egypt and the African Youth Bureau.

In July 2020, Waringa’s expose dubbed The Football Con unleashed the rotten ailings in Kenyan football, highlighting how matches were fixed in the country. It detailed how several alleged key players in the intricate web were involved, including football players, referees and ‘money men’ from as far away as Singapore.

The expose was later recognized by the Global Investigative Journalists Network Africa chapter. In 2021, alongside former NMG sports correspondent Jeff Kinyanjui, the exposé earned global recognition as the best in the investigative reporting category in the 2020 International Sports Press Association (AIPS) awards for Africa as a joint print and TV production.

Throughout her career, she has interviewed prominent sporting figures such as FIFA Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldinho, Manchester United treble-winning sportsman Dwight Yorke and Southampton player Theo Walcott.