Star FM, Kenya

Kassim Mohamed is an investigative reporter covering Kenya and Somalia, a nation plagued by lawlessness and piracy. He has chronicled the ensuing chaos in great detail—and at great personal risk— as senior correspondent for the Nairobi-based Star FM radio station and a writer for The Star newspaper. Mohamed is also a regular contributor to Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

His in-depth interviews with Somali pirates have shed light on a lucrative industry that endangers international sea routes. During one investigation, the pirates took him hostage. After they freed him, he wrote a groundbreaking story on the struggles of the pirates’ wives. He has received death threats.

A Kenyan of the Somali ethnic community, Mohamed covered the beleaguered Somali refugees living in Nairobi. He wrote about gangs that terrorized a Somali neighborhood in Nairobi as the police apparently looked the other way. After the story appeared, the police arrested 65 gang members.

He got his start in journalism as an intern and later a producer and correspondent for Kenya Television Network (KTN). In 2010, CNN named him the MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year for radio reporting.

Mohamed is pursuing a bachelor's degree in mass communication at Mount Kenya University and a diploma in public relations management and mass media studies through Digital Advisory and Learning Centre Education.

Follow him @kmohamed.