The air was tense; charged with a potent mixture of anticipation and unrest. Outside Nairobi’s City Hall, the place had turned into chaos and commotion. Shouts erupted from every direction as dozens of police officers weaved through the sea of voices keen to contain the situation.
Journalists watched and waited. For Sila Kiplagat, a photojournalist with Nation Media Group (NMG), it was a perfect moment to capture the aura of the place through the lens of his camera.
“How do you capture the truth?” he starts. “As a photographer, you have to be cognisant of your surroundings. One eye on the camera, another eye on your surroundings, and fingers ready to click the shutter.”
In March 2023, the Azimio La Umoja leader Raila Odinga announced a massive demonstration against President Ruto’s government citing stolen supreme power after the August 2022 general election, the high cost of living, and the selection of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioners. Azimio led their supporters to protest in different parts of the country.
“It was the first day of the demonstrations that would follow in the subsequent weeks. I was assigned to cover the city centre. It was calm in the morning hours until mayhem started as the day unfolded. As I watched the interplay between the police officers and the protesters, my focus was on the task. To uncover the stories within the chaos,” he says.
One of the photos he captured that day was of a police officer lobbing a tear gas canister to disperse the demonstrating crowd. That photo went viral making him an instant celebrity. “It was crazy. My phone rang incessantly as calls and messages poured in. I don’t frequently post on my social media platforms but I got so many tags that I had to repost the image on my social feeds. So far, the photo has more than 200k views and I gained more than 3,000 new followers.”
But, it was not the first time that an image he had captured had busted into the online world or wowed judges in photography competitions. Since 2018, he has won eight global awards, including African winner in the Young photojournalist awards by International Sports Press Association (AIPS), and was 2022 named by the Media Council of Kenya as the photojournalist of the year during its annual journalism excellence awards.
“He has a talented eye for unique sports action angles and the professional ability to adopt different situations to different camera lenses, his anticipation also holding him in good stead,” says Elias Makori, Sports Editor at NMG.
Sila, sitting next to me while holding the camera he used on that day, shares how fell in love with photography while working as a Swahili reporter.
“There were a handful of photographers in Baringo County where I come from and in retrospect, I didn’t fancy their jobs. It was TV reporters that drew me in and fostered the desire to pursue journalism. My father wanted me to try a field like nursing.”
Sila was intrigued by photography. “After each photography class, he would request a camera and capture events that were happening around Nakuru city. Our lecturer gave him his first camera,” said one of his former classmates at a satellite campus of Presbyterian University of East Africa where he was taking a course in photography simultaneously with a bachelor’s degree in journalism at Egerton University. “That small camera won me my first award and changed my career trajectory,” he said.
Thousands of graduates in Kenya don’t immediately get jobs after their graduation. Sila didn’t too. He started his own venture, a boda boda business.
“While at it, I was applying for media-related jobs and that is how I landed an internship opportunity at NMG in 2016,” he says.
As he interviewed his subjects or covered events, he took his camera with him. That offered him a chance to immerse fully in a different world.
“I enjoy taking photos that tell stories on their own. As such, before I undertake any assignment, I try to answer the question, “What is the story?”
In an era where capturing experiences and moments have become an integral part of our lives, photography is increasingly becoming a captivating career choice for tens of young people. Furthermore, the digital age has created a myriad of entrepreneurial opportunities in the field.
“The most important aspect of photography is not the equipment but the person behind the lens. Imagine an artist and a blank canvas. One has to be creative and learn the fundamentals of perspective, composition, and angles. When I am going to cover a sporting event or political rallies, I ensure that I get a good vantage point and have my camera ready to click.”
