Cynthia Gichiri digs up gold with ‘Fertile Deception’ at AJEA awards

In a year full of big headlines, it  was a bag of sand that stole the show.

Cynthia Gichiri of Africa Uncensored clinched the Best Investigative Reporting Award at the 2025 Annual Journalism Excellence Awards (AJEA), thanks to her jaw-dropping exposé Fertile Deception. The two-part documentary revealed how unsuspecting farmers across Kenya were supplied with fake fertilizer—essentially glorified sand—under a government-subsidized program.

What was meant to boost harvests ended up sinking hopes. Ms Gichiri’s bold reporting, which involved undercover investigations and lab tests, brought to light how a product meant to nurture the land had become the root of heartbreak in many farming communities.

The revelations sparked public outrage, led to arrests, and triggered investigations into how such a large-scale scheme had gone unnoticed for so long. As questions mounted, an 11-member parliamentary committee was quickly formed and later cleared then Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi of wrongdoing. While the decision settled the matter at the official level, public debate about accountability and oversight in the agriculture sector continued.

Ms Gichiri’s work, however, was hard to ignore. It stood out not only for its impact but also for its courage and clarity—qualities that earned her top honours.

She beat out Simon Ciuri of Nation Media Group, whose story revealed how a suspect in a Sh720 million jobs fraud case leveraged a high-level foreign tour to push deals back home. Kiplang’at Rotich of Cape Media also impressed judges with his investigation into a major administrative mix-up at Moi University that had serious implications for students and parents alike.

In the end, it was Fertile Deception—a story rooted in the soil and watered by sharp journalism—that won the day.

For farmers who rely on truth as much as rain, and for citizens who expect integrity in service delivery, Ms Gichiri’s story was more than an investigation. It was a reminder that good journalism matters—and that sometimes, digging deep is the only way to grow real change.