Nairobi, July 28: Kenya is getting a husband and wife team to present the news for the first time, in what’s seen as a little bit of national television history.
Leading Swahili TV news presenter Lulu Hassan took to the air on Friday to present Citizen TV’s Swahili-language bulletin alongside her husband Rashid Abdalla.
Ms Hassan presents the popular Nipashe Wikendi programme on what is Kenya’s most popular TV station.
The pairing has been touted as the first ever married couple to present the news on Kenyan television.
“Welcome Rashid Abdalla, please feel at home,” Hassan said, as her husband took his seat alongside her.
“This is good collaboration,” he replied, before adding more cryptically: “It is a partnership similar to how the hands and eyes coordinate”.
There was extensive publicity about the pairing before the couple’s debut news programme together, yet neither mentioned their relationship on air. However, many online users have noted that Ms Hassan briefly tapped her husband on the hand as they signed out.
Mr Abdalla is a new recruit to the programme, replacing previous anchor Kanze Dena, who was recently appointed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta as his deputy spokesperson.
He was recruited from rival network NTV, part of the media group which owns Kenya’s Nation newspaper.
Kenyan social media seemed amused by the the husband-and-wife team, with one user asking: “Would you work with your other half at the same place?”
The Kenyans.co.ke website saluted the emergence of the new “power couple” , saying they “didn’t disappoint”; quoting enthusiastic social media users who said – among other things – “this combination is dope”.

UNI