TV Anchor With Kenyan Roots Announces Departure From Sky News

Kimberley Leonard, an English TV anchor with Kenyan roots, announced that she is leaving Sky News.

She made the announcement on Saturday evening, August 26 through a Twitter post, adding that she was off to greener pastures which she would reveal in due course.

While her announcement left many of her social media fans heartbroken, Leonard revealed that they could catch her during her final two shows on Sunday, August 27 and Monday, August 28, encouraging her fans to send pictures of where they are watching her from.

Kimberley Leonard during a past Sky News bulletin. /FILE

"I'm leaving Sky News and heading off on a new adventure.

"More info on that to come - but please join me for #Breakfast tomorrow and mid-morning on Monday for my last shifts. And please do send pictures of where you're watching from," she tweeted at 10.10 p.m.

Renowned journalists and media personalities including BBC's Waihiga Mwaura, Joy Doreen Biira, Pinky Ghelani, and Gina Din among others as well as the Foreign Press Association, Africa (FPAA) all congratulated her for the strides she made while at Sky News, wishing her the best in her next adventure.

Kimberley Leonard Profile

Kimberley is based in London, United Kingdom and boasts over 20 years of international experience working as an anchor, reporter and producer for some of the world’s leading news channels. Before her recent announcement, she was the lead world news presenter at Sky News.

She was born and bred in Kenya. In Nairobi, she began her media career working in radio, as her LinkedIn profile details.

She then moved to the United Arab Emirates to work as a reporter for the Dubai One‘s nightly news for over seven years. She then relocated to Qatar where she got a position at Al Jazeera English, based in Doha.

During her time in Dubai, Kimberley worked as a reporter and anchor on the business desk, where she cultivated an interest in the hotel sector. After Qatar, she moved to the United Kingdom in 2015.

It was in the English capital that she joined Sky News, taking up the following shows: Sky Midnight News, Sky News Sunrise, Live at Five and Press Preview. Her job came with its share of gigantic demands since she spent over six hours working on Live TV.

Kimberley reported on events that shaped Kenya, Africa and the world, including the Dusit D2 terrorist attack in Nairobi, the ejection of Robert Mugabe from power in Zimbabwe, the historic summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-In and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong Un, the Grenfell Tower disaster in London and the Manchester bombing.

She has also covered live scenes of plane crashes, and economic forums and interviewed the likes of billionaire Richard Branson, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Chris Froome, and Terry O’Neill to name a few.

Kimberley Leonard posing next to a photo of former US President, Donald Trump. /FILE

Kimberley has moderated numerous conferences, one of them being the UN-Habitat annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur and The Africa Hotel Investment Forum in Nairobi. Her moderation work has been varied and includes conferences on aviation, ecology and insurance.

As an aviation addict, she grew up near Wilson Airport, Lang’ata, Nairobi County where she flew for countless hours with her father (a pilot) across the country. It was there that she fell in love with aeroplanes.

During her stay in the UAE, she manifested her passion into a career, covering various aspects of the aviation industry. Other than English, Kimberley bears a fluency in Kiswahili as well as Spanish and French.

In Kenya, she attended Hillcrest School from 1994 to 1998. The media personality proceeded to the University of Cape Town to study film and media.

Kimberley also holds a masters in international journalism from the University of Westminister in London, an educational institution KBC anchor Shiksha Arora studied in prior to her return to Kenya.

Did You Know?

Kimberley has a sister and just like her, she works in the media industry. Davina Leonard is a radio presenter at Capital FM, Kenya’s first private commercial radio station and a household name for training the best in the radio industry in the country where Kimberley made waves in her media career during her early days.

Davina is no new face to the station. She first drew its attention when she interviewed at the station concerning her film Poacher which premiered on Netflix.

She was offered an internship position, the manner in which she impressed being enough to land her a slot at the station.

She teams up alongside Fareed Khimani for Capital In The Morning every weekday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Other than radio, Davina is a trained actor, freelance producer, and avid coffee lover.

Kimberley Leonard interacts with her sister, Davina Leonard in this photo taken on January 4, 2022. /CAPITAL FM LIFESTYLE