Pioneering Kenya editor dies

Michael Curtis: "Guiding hand" at The Daily Nation

Michael Curtis, the founding editor of one of East Africa's most respected newspapers, The Daily Nation, has died.

Mr Curtis, who was 84, was the first editor of the Kenyan newspaper, helping to launch the Nairobi-based publication in 1960.

The newspaper was set up by the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims worldwide.

The paper aimed to aid Kenya's transition to majority rule and independence from the UK.

Michael Curtis began his career as a newspaper journalist and editor in England and took on the role of editor at The Daily Nation in Kenya in the run-up to independence, which it won in 1963.

He left as managing director and chief executive of Nation newspapers in 1994, more than three decades later.

He died at his home in Chipping Campden in western England on Saturday, according to his family.

'Guiding hand'

"He was very personable, very accommodating, very patient, always ready to help," Wangethi Mwangi, editor of The Daily Nation since 1992, told BBC News Online.

"He was given a wide latitude to set up the newspaper, recruit staff and shape editorial policy. He became the guiding hand for everyone, providing both management and editorial leadership."

The Nation, with a circulation of 165,000, is believed to have an overall readership of almost three million.

The first edition was published on 3 October 1960 with the aim of helping "Kenya and other East African territories make the transition to African majority rule and full independence as peacefully and constructively as possible".

It played an important role in developing a lively press in Kenya.

"When The Nation began it was staffed by expatriates, mainly British, but it increasingly trained African journalists and now it is almost 100% African," Mr Mwangi said.

The newspaper is now part of the largest independent media group in East Africa, Nation Media, which includes a radio and television network.