Her departure from KBC on Friday, July 19 marked the end of another significant chapter in her life, having spent three years at the state-owned broadcaster.
Cape Media Limited TV station, TV47 has poached Shiksha Arora, one of the country’s most vibrant media personalities, days after she left the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC).
One of Kenya’s rapidly growing TV stations had released an advertisement revealing that she joined the team, introduced as the ‘new girls in town’.
Her departure from KBC on Friday, July 19 marked the end of another significant chapter in her life, having spent three years at the state-owned broadcaster.
Her message exuded gratitude to her colleagues for giving her the opportunity to work with her throughout the three-year spell that traversed the 2022 general elections.
Arora’s Easy Friday show on KBC every Friday from 9 PM also saw her host more than 100 Kenyan celebrities and artists spanning different cultures.
Shiksha Arora during a past photo shoot. /FACEBOOK.SHIKSHA ARORA
“My heart is overflowing with emotions as I type this. It’s hard to say goodbye to a workplace that I called home for 3 years and colleagues who have become like family,” she wrote in part.
“Thank you to everyone who joined me on this incredible journey on #EasyFriday on KBC for the past 3 years. I covered the elections, danced with the biggest names in the entertainment scene in Kenya, and interviewed over 100 celebrities & artists on the show & WHAT A TIME WE HAD! We’ve laughed, danced, cried, and grown together on KBC Television. This isn’t just the end of a show; it’s just the beginning of a new chapter which I am very excited about.”
Her final show, aired on the same day, was a poignant farewell to both her audience and her team at KBC.
The media personality joined KBC as a news anchor in 2021 after quitting K24 where she had similarly served for three years since 2018.
Arora’s Journey As The ‘Dancing Anchor’
Also known as ‘the dancing anchor’, Arora is a vibrant and bold person who is fearless in changing the game many Kenyans have known 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.
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 revealed in a past interview.
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.
Read also: Shiksha Arora: From Surviving Westgate Attack To Dancing KBC Anchor
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.
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, and she bagged the Best Female Anchor award at the Asian Weekly Achievers Awards in 2019.
