Editor's Review

Macharia worked for Reuters, BBC World Service, Nation Media Group, and KTN before joining UN.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Sandra Macharia as the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Nairobi. 

UN in a statement on Monday, July 10 stated that Macharia’s new role will cover Kenya, Seychelles and Uganda.

“United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Sandra Macharia of Kenya as Director of the United Nations Information Service in Nairobi, covering Kenya, the Seychelles and Uganda. She assumed her new duties on 10 July,” read the statement in part.

Macharia holds over 20 years of experience in strategic and crisis communications, as well as policy and programme development.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Macharia joined UN in June 2003 as a communications officer for United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Somalia where she served for nearly four years before moving to New York as a Communications Specialist.

File image of Sandra Macharia

She has also served in several roles in UNDP including; Deputy Communications Director ad interim, Regional Communications Adviser for Africa, and Special Assistant to Assistant Secretaries-General.

Before her latest appointment, Macharia was serving as the Chief of the Africa Section and Editor-in-Chief of Africa Renewal in the United Nations Department of Global Communications.

Macharia worked for Reuters, BBC World Service, Nation Media Group, and Kenya Television Network before joining UN.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism, film, and broadcasting, a postgraduate diploma in broadcasting from Cardiff University, and a master’s degree in media, peace and conflict studies from the Universidad para la Paz.