The history of professional training for journalists in East Africa dates back to the early 1960's. The intention then was to Africanise the mass media. Between 1963 and 1968, the International Press Institute ran a series of six-month training programmes in Nairobi for journalists from English-speaking African countries. To continue these programmes the Ministry of Education approached UNESCO in 1968 to assist in setting up a more intensive training programme integrated into the University of Nairobi.
