Tracy Bonareri Onchoke is an investigative journalist from Kenya who strives to ‘tell stories that amplify voices pushed to the margins’ in her reports for Africa Uncensored, an independent investigative media house based in Nairobi.
Tracy is one of three finalists in our competition to find the Young Journalist of the Year 2025.
“My work exposes disinformation and confronts abuse of power,” says the 26-year-old whose investigations span across health, gender, corruption, sport and human rights. Tracy says she was motivated to become a journalist after seeing a woman reporter on TV news when she was growing up. “For the first time, I saw a woman holding power and I knew I wanted to follow that path.”
Access to justice
In Blocked at the Bar, one of three stories she submitted for the competition, Tracey set out to discover why hundreds of law students in Kenya were failing the bar exam.
“I wanted to highlight how compromised legal training threatens not only individual futures, but access to justice for the entire country,” says Tracy whose report includes powerful testimonies from affected students stuck in a cycle of exam retakes, with some subsequently citing the story in tribunal hearings.
“As an investigative journalist in Kenya, I know the risks that come with this work,” she reveals.
I know the risks that come with this work
Constant threats
In another of her stories she spoke to people rejected by their families and forced to undergo ‘conversion therapy’ for being gay. Tracy says she is harassed online adding that some of her colleagues have also faced threats of legal action to prevent them reporting on matters of public interest, commonly known as SLAPP suits.
“We all carry the trauma of the constant threats we experience, but all this will not keep us from telling the stories that matter,” she says. “I'm inspired by the power of stories to create change, to spark accountability, shift perceptions and give dignity to voices often ignored and that is why I keep going.”
Young Journalist of the Year Competition
The Thomson Foundation Young Journalist of the Year Award is run in partnership with the UK’s Foreign Press Association (FPA). The competition is open to journalists aged 30 and under, from countries with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of less than less than USD 20,000. This year’s winner will be announced at the FPA’s Media Awards on November 24th in London.
