Shiksha Arora: From Surviving Westgate Attack To Dancing KBC Anchor

Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) Presenter, Shiksha Arora has had one of the most remarkable turnarounds from being a victim of the harrowing Westgate Shopping Mall terrorist attack in 2013 to a standout brand in her own right.

Also known as 'the dancing anchor', Arora is a vibrant and bold person who is fearless in changing the game many Kenyans knew news anchors for over the years; personalities who put on serious faces anytime they present news bulletins.

For Kenyans who have keenly followed her since her rise to journalism prominence at K24 TV, she has been wowing audiences with her dance moves which have not only gone viral but also sent reputable brands fighting tooth and nail to land marketing contracts with her.

"I am a vibrant bold person who believes in doing what I dream of and always doing something out of the box. Be it creativity in terms of dancing or being a news anchor that is not your usual stereotype news anchor that people see, serious, smart and rigid that is not who I am.

Shiksha Arora in a strapless off-shoulder dress matched with a pink fascinator. /NAIROBI NEWS

"I believe in being someone who can do anything they want when they put their minds to it, so I am a dancing anchor who likes doing things with passion. A lot of people think that just because I am Indian then is why I am a natural at dancing," she revealed in a recent interview with Nairobi News.

Her journey in the media industry began by chance when she worked as a part-time radio presenter at Easy Fm, a move she never saw coming. She had a penchant for research and all things science and was intrigued by little organisms, hence her undergraduate studies in Microbiology.

Upon realising her newfound passion, she enrolled for a Master's degree in Journalism at Westminster University in the United Kingdom while simultaneously working at the British state broadcaster, BBC.

"I think of myself as a people person, I love to perform, I have always been a dancer, I have been dancing since I was four years old so I have always been on stage but at the time I did not know that I wanted to pursue art in this manner in the form of journalism," she added.

She described her radio experience as one that made her realise how long a minute was since it demands that one talks almost constantly, aside from the planning that goes on behind the scenes as a radio presenter, which she believes is tougher than being on TV.

Other than radio, looking for a job in the media industry was a tall order for her as she had to wait for five months before receiving callbacks from the media houses she had applied to, including K24, KTN, NTV and Citizen TV.

She began receiving callbacks from the media houses she applied to and through her unfettered determination, she was able to rise to the peak of her journalism career when she bagged her first media job at K24.

In 2020 however, she was the unfortunate victim of a mass firing exercise by MediaMax Networks which swept clean almost the entire newsroom, an exercise she stated came just when she was gaining popularity not just as a news anchor but also in terms of her numbers on social media. To make matters worse, she had no plan B and could not even return to dancing because of the performances being halted by COVID-19 restrictions.

"But then I realised that Social Media is one of the most powerful tools, at the beginning I was not doing much, I would just post short videos of myself as a distraction to myself and all my fans from the dire situation that was there thanks to the pandemic.

"People liked my content online and my numbers just started growing. So I started being very intentional with the kind of content I produce," she stated while noting that she experienced depression, anxiety and bouts of panic attacks after losing her job.

She would get a big break a year later when KBC poached her in 2021 when it was rebranding itself, alongside a star-studded list of veteran anchors, including those previously at the national broadcaster and those recruited from rival media houses.

Arora has been recognized for her on-air skills as she bagged the Best Female Anchor award at the Asian Weekly Achievers Awards in 2019. She terms her life as a news anchor as an interesting one, recalling how she was fresh out of her postgraduate school and received a lot of backlash when she got her first job as a news anchor.

"First, there was the impression that because I am light-skinned and beautiful is the reason why I got the job.

"I remember one Twitter troll that said, “this one is just a pretty face with a nice body and all she does is show her legs and dance,” I responded saying, “and you forgot that she also has a Master’s degree.” The tweet went viral," she added.

She terms colourism as still a big problem in the media industry, stating that "for example, if I was in an audition with someone who is darker than me and they did not get a job, this person would feel that maybe one of the reasons they did not get the job is because of their skin colour. But on the upside, we have made some serious growth in terms of inclusion."

The news anchor revealed that the Dusit D2 terrorist attack in January 2019 was the most difficult story she ever covered, for a period of seven hours, as the tale of the people that succumbed to the attack, the injuries sustained and details of how the terrorists executed the attack reminded her of her ordeal during the 2013 Westgate attack.

Shiksha Arora posing for a photo. /INSTAGRAM.SHIKSHA ARORA

"I was at Westgate Mall when the attack happened I was trapped in the mall for like two hours, I was there with my colleagues from East FM, Ruhila Adatia one of my colleagues unfortunately did not make it.

"The terrorist threw a grenade at us but it did not go off and the grenade was 100 meters from where I was, and I was with a group of children and parents because we were at the East FM cooking competition. This was happening at the rooftop where we were very much exposed," she added.

Arora recalled having to undergo therapy afterwards and would start to panic and get scared every time she would hear something loud. It took her a year before she was able to go to any mall.