Big Win as Former Citizen TV News Anchor Yvonne Okwara Unveils Her Own Media Platform

Former Citizen TV journalist Yvonne Okwara has made a significant move in her career after starting her own YouTube channel and releasing her first exclusive interview since exiting the television station.

The seasoned journalist introduced her new platform by posting a teaser of a conversation with a Kenyan man named Vincent, who survived being recruited to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war.The interview delves into how Vincent was allegedly tricked into travelling to Russia, what he went through after landing there and how he finally managed to get away.

Yvonne called the conversation one of the most gripping of her career, saying Vincent’s ordeal exposed an aspect of the conflict that many Kenyans had never heard.

She observed that although many Kenyan families have been appealing for help to locate relatives who went to Russia, very little has been said by those who escaped and returned home.

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, worries have mounted over accounts of young Kenyans being enticed abroad with lucrative job offers.

Some were reportedly promised civilian work paying as much as KSh 300,000 per month, along with generous signing bonuses. But on arriving in Russia, some allegedly found the jobs were not what they had been told and were forced to sign military contracts.

The situation has left numerous Kenyan families anxiously searching for sons, brothers and husbands who left the country but later disappeared.

Yvonne said Vincent’s account was especially significant because he was more than a name in news reports about the war; he was a person who had lived through it and survived.

The journalist also posted a brief clip of Vincent getting into her car before the video cut off, leaving viewers eager to see the rest of their discussion.

The complete interview can be watched on her newly established YouTube channel, which marks her first major project as she moves into independent digital journalism following her exit from Citizen TV.

ProfAmor feedback-opera-news-app@opera.com