Larry Madowo in his final year at Daystar, six years after enrolling

Six years after the Larry Madowo joined Daystar University for a four-year communication degree, the distinguished broadcaster is finally finishing his studies at Daystar. In between three high profile jobs as a TV reporter and anchor, Larry jokingly refers himself as ‘a professional dropout’, having dropped classes three times.

“Its coz of money, work and just because I was young and foolish,” says Larry.

Larry, who is currently an anchor with the authoritative business channel, CNBC Africa, was at Daystar Athi River on Wednesday to speak at a talk show organized by Incubator Initiative and hosted by Samantha Kendi and Anne Warui.

Larry shared with the audience how he wanted to be a Catholic priest after high school. He freely answered questions from the hosts and guests with the use of three fluent languages; English, Swahili and sarcasm.

Larry has worked for KTN, NTV before moving to CNBC last year. His dream job was to work for KTN – one of the many reasons he got into journalism.

Ironically he doesn’t love being on Kenyan TV. “I love walking down on the street and no one would recognize me,” he said. “I would take a matatu and enjoy the ride, walk to a Kenchic and eat there.

His advice; “You are not as good as you think”. This explains why he doesn’t attribute himself as successful yet.

Accused of being nosy and beaten up a couple of times as a young boy, he said curiosity and attention to detail are important in the media industry.

“I speak to everybody, watchmen have interesting perspectives from news and I am fascinated by people.”

As a young boy growing in the village, he would buy meat wrapped in a newspaper and end up reading the paper before cutting the meat.

He confesses he has an attention span of a three year old and loves traveling just to meet new people and learn more. His other hobbies include and “procrastinating to watch TV”.

“The more I travel and meet new people, I realize I don’t know much”, he said.

His favorite country in Africa is Rwanda, to which he asked everyone to take a road trip there.

Larry is a wannabe techie and as he explained, he pretends to be one by hanging around techie junkies.

“I would probably had become a lawyer if I didn’t take up journalism,” says Larry

When asked about his love life he said, “I am in the process of seeing someone. I will settle down when I am ready for it and when I meet someone who is also ready.”

Larry says he is on a one month social media rehab and will be taking a voluntary fast on twitter where he has over 37,000 followers.

He thinks he has been a slave of information and would love to find out what else is there besides social media. He is considering taking up knitting as a hobby or play Ukelele.

“I go into panic when I’m forced into extended periods of absence from the Internet, such as on those long, back-breaking, semi-damp cattle class flights….but I am disconnecting. I am going off social media for the entire month of September, in the year of our Lord 2012,” he writes on his blog.

Photos: Irene Majale