For a renowned Sports Journalist turning into a very active and dedicated human rights journalist was truly unbelievable for many and mostly his close friends and media personalities at the Coast.
Having a passion in sports and worked for three years as a sports reporter, presenter and an editor at an Islamic Coast based radio station Radio Salaam was commendable, but the amazing turn of events surprised his colleagues in Mombasa.
Ismail Zema changed his wings to become a serious, dedicated human rights journalist, and he reveals that he is not relenting.
He is always on the move covering the oppressed at the Coast, giving more attention to the chronic land problem, the impact of poverty in rural areas, gender based violence, the drug menace, extra judicial killings plights of persons living with disabilities among other vast human right related news stories, analysis and well researched in depth features.
He has transverse all the Coastal counties and Nairobi as well and he was now stretching his arms to the North Eastern part of the country where extra judicial killings and forced disappearance cases are immense as well as the East Africa region.
The young Journalist who tied the knot in a glamorous Islamic wedding in December last year however says that he has to balance between his marriage life and work since most of the coverage he does at times puts him at risk.
“It is evident that if you touch on the motive land issue at the Coast you may hit the ‘untouchable’, you must exercise caution, but that has never deter me from unleashing the truth through ‘InformAction’ online human rights TV that has been my home for the last three years,” he noted.
Zema a younger brother to a renowned strong commanding voice that transverse the airwaves through Radio Citizen, Yusuf Zema famously ‘Kaka Zema’ said that he is proud to be the only Human rights journalist at the Coast and who has developed a strong passion in using the media to crusade for human rights and justice.
“However, I am not an activist but a human rights journalist, people should not confuse the two, activism and journalism,” he retorted.
Zema has perfected in almost all fields in the media including still and videography, video editing, News and features gathering, packaging and dissemination, live sports analysis programmes among many other disciplines directly related to the newsroom.
“Human rights journalism is the best field that makes you dig dipper into facts and understand the real human rights violation right at your backyard and take them to the world pressing for justice but am currently focusing on bringing the world to Kenyans through the lense,” He takes a deep breath as he pan his video camera to get a close-up shot of a family left homeless at Miritini area in Mombasa after a private developer claimed ownership of their ancestral land.
