Veteran editor Mbogo Murage was found dead at his home in Kileleshwa, Nairobi, on Monday night.
The Revise Editor at the Star was born in 1956 in Embu.
He attended Shimo la Tewa Secondary School in Mombasa and studied at the University of Nairobi in the 1970s.
Mbogo later went for a master’s degree in Minnesota, USA. In 1996-1997 he was a Knight-Wallace Fellow in journalism at the University of Minnesota.
He started as a sub-editor at the Standard newspaper before becoming the deputy chief sub-editor of the Nation newspaper in the late 1990s.
Mbogo then became chief sub-editor of the Sunday Nation and briefly the Managing Editor of the Sunday Nation.
He then went to Tanzania to work for the Citizen, an English language paper owned by the Nation Media Group. On his return to Kenya, Mbogo worked for various publications before joining the Star in 2008.
Police said Mbogo, who lived alone, may have died at the weekend but his neighbours did not realise this until his brother and colleagues found him.
“Mbogo was a meticulous editor. If he had a fault, it was that he was too insistent on always getting the English right. He is literally irreplaceable,” Star Managing Director William Pike said.
Colleagues at the Star praised Mbogo as a team player who worked long hours and was always cheerful.
They said he always consulted to make certain he got the story right despite his vast experience.
The body is at the Montezuma Monalisa Funeral Home as burial arrangements are made.
State House Condolences
Communication directors mourned Mbogo as “an outstanding writer and editor whose contribution to the media industry in Kenya will always be missed”.
“Mbogo was pleasant, social, generous and humble. Indeed, the cruel hand of death has snatched from our midst a man who held tremendous promise not only for his family and the Radio Africa Group – which he worked for at the time of his death – but the entire journalism fraternity,” a statement from President Uhuru Kenyatta’s communications director said.