Recently Citizen TV’s News Anchor Kanze Dena opened about
her life struggles in her long journey to the top to become a senior News
Anchor.
During a segment on Hot 96, the beautiful news anchor
emotionally narrated her journey to success, where she started off as a waitress
at her Grandfathers Fast Food Restaurant along the busy Nairobi- Mombasa
Highway.
According to Kanze, she had just concluded her high school
and her mother could not allow her to stay at home, because she taught she will
mingle with bad company.
“So she sent me to my grandfather’s Petrol station along
Mombasa Road where he had a Fast Food Café called Le Café . I started off in
the Kitchen Pealing Potatoes, because that was the starting point for everyone.
Day one I checked in, given an overall and directed to the Kitchen. After I
while I graduated to washing dishes , that was hardest job I have ever done.
You wash dishes until your hands lose the senses of hot things.. That’s why I
respect all the dish washers in every Hotel. When I see somebody mishandling
dish washers it pains me so much. Days past and I was promoted to a waitress.”
Being a waitress was not easy as she had to remember more
than10 orders at ones. She stayed at her Grandfathers facility for almost one
year and a half then got another hustle in the CBD.
“After sometime I got another job at a café called Vesbar. I
worked with them for 7 month. While at Vesbar is when I got pregnant with my
first daughter who later passed on after three months."
The pregnancy forced her to go back to home to take care of
her growing bump. She carried it in privacy with plans of giving of out her new
born for Adoption. Things did not go has planned and in the end she lost the
baby.
After the Painful experience, Kanze had to deal with family
stigma, as giving birth before marriage was a big deal.
“I went into some kind of depression, I felt unworthy for
almost a year, I was battling self-esteem seeing like God did want me to
continue being Natasha’s mother. I was very hurt by the incidents, after that I
came back to Nairobi and I was able to get admission to study Mass
Commination."
While At the college, Kanze decided to go for attachment at
the end of her course. Luckily she landed at KBC, where she met with Terryanne
Chebet.
“I remember by that time KBC was only taking student from
Kenya Institute of Mass Communication. So we forced to be everywhere to avoid
being kicked out. I could do news, be a Assistant -producer and even recite
poems.
While at KBC, I was reading news on KBC Radio Taifa, so one
day the new anchor on duty had not checked in, so I was forced to step in for
him. After the news the editor in Chief who was Hirim Mucheke (Director KIMC
now) called me and told that I was good, and I should take up the news
bulleting.
After a few days, I was taken to TV as a Swahili news
anchor, where now my journey on TV started. My first day was very tricky after
being paired with Bahati Makusini, while on air I lost my voice, the struggles
went on for some time but I got better with time.
She worked with KBC for almost 6 years, before crossing over
to Citizen TV.
Asked on how she met with Lulu Hassan who they have become
the inseparable duo on TV.Kanze reveals that she met with Lulu at her son’s
Birthday after being Facebook friends for almost one year.
By that time Lulu was working at KTN while Kanze was on KBC. Later on, the two met at Royal Media.
