Bazi Kanani

Bazi Kanani is a correspondent for ABC News based in Nairobi, Kenya since 2011. Kanani reports about news from Africa across ABC News' broadcast, radio and website... Read More »

Bazi Kanani is a correspondent for ABC News based in Nairobi, Kenya since 2011. Kanani reports about news from Africa across ABC News' broadcast, radio and website platforms. In 2012, she reported on the daring Navy SEALs rescue of American hostage Jessica Buchanan who flew to Nairobi after being freed in Somalia. In Uganda, Kanani obtained the first television interview with former child soldier Jacob Acaye who is featured in the Kony 2012 video, the most successful viral video in history. Kanani then traveled to northern Uganda to interview several of warlord Joseph Kony's victims and witnessed the slow recovery communities were making after decades of war. In South Africa, she reported on Nelson Mandela's recent health scare and covered the first graduation at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Before joining ABC News, Kanani was an anchor-reporter at KUSA in Denver where she spent eight years as a general assignment reporter and as an anchor of the weekday 9 pm newscast. In this assignment she covered a wide range of local news stories. Kanani was honored as the Broadcast Journalist of the Year by the Colorado Association of Black Journalists. In 2007, she brought back stories from her trip to East Africa; as a result her documentary "My Africa" earned her an Emmy Award and a National Association of Black Journalists Award. Then in 2008, she reported on what Coloradans are doing to help Rwanda with recovery efforts following the country's genocide. Her "Reaching Rwanda" documentary won an Associated Press award and a regional Edward R. Murrow award. Kanani began her news career as a writer and producer in Las Vegas, Nevada. She then spent time as an anchor and reporter in Lansing, Michigan and after that, in Buffalo, New York. For her reporting in Michigan she won the Best Individual Reporting Award from the Michigan Associated Press in 2002. Kanani's father is from Tanzania and her mother is from Colorado. Kanani graduated summa cum laude from Pepperdine University with a bachelor's degree in Political Science.