Its always hard to believe what the people go through to reach to a certain stage in life and you it’s also hard to do the same to Shiela Nduhukire’s story.
Sheila’s story starts on the 23rd of April 1990 when she was born in Kazo district. Her father is the current Bishop of North Ankole Diocese known as Rt. Rev Stephen Namanya and the mother is Lydia Namanya, a retired teacher. She was born second in a family of seven.
Nduhukire managed to acquire education her primary education at Kabatereine memorial school in Mbarara.
She then joined Uganda Martyrs Namugongo SS for O’Level and then Bweranyangi girls for A-Level education.
Due to her excellent performance in the final exams, she got a government scholarship on quota system to pursue a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST).
After joining university, she got her greatest turning point and in her first year at campus, she was elected Chief Fresher and the experience in student leadership gained from this position gave her courage to contest for the Guild President Office the following year.
She had initially applied for Guild Speaker but later changed her mind for the top office and in a heated election, she successfully floored five other men becoming the first female guild president of the university since its inception in 1989.
Sheila’s journalism career started way back in 2013 when she joined the Daily Monitor.
Nation Media being a big brand in the news sector in Uganda always looks out for potential workers yet Nduhukire had studied Business administration. This forced the media house to send her to their media lab in Nairobi to acquire more skills in printing, radio and TV journalism.
While in Nairobi, her trainers recommended to the Nation Media offices in Uganda that she is good on TV better that the print media and when she returned to Uganda after the course, she was forwarded to the then head of the news department at NTV, Mourice Mugisha for a broadcast test and was immediately taken on as a news reporter on 17th March 2014. She reported news for only 7 months before becoming an anchor.
While at NTV, Nduhukire strengthened her journalist brand because of her boldness, resilience and never settling in the comfort zone. If it meant ambushing the president for a quick interview, despite the intorrelant security detail, she would .
She remains the first and only journalist in Uganda to have conducted an exclusive interview with the first lady and the first son despite their known resentment to media interviews.
Her courageous reporting on the 2016 general elections amazed many viewers. Her feature reporting stories like the under-age prostitution in refugee camps impressed Ugandans and on several occasions, she came out as a fearless and intelligent journalist.
In June 2018, she was transferred to NTV’s sister station in Kenya. After a brief stint at NTV Kenya, Nduhukire went to the UK to pursue a Master’s Degree in International Public Relations and Global Communications Management at Cardiff University under the Chavening Scholarship Program.
She recently revealed in a tweet that while in UK, she got a part time job as a waitress at the famous McDonald’s restaurant to get her upkeep. On return from the UK, she was spotted by the Next Media CEO, Kin Karisa and was unveiled last year in November as a member of the NBS team as a news anchor with a good pay deal.
