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On the evening of October 10th 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya, several outstanding African journalists will be recognized at the 20th CNNMultichoice Awards.

Personally, it is fulfilling that an idea that we nurtured not to enrich ourselves but to help human kind has had such a profound impact for this long. In the early 1990s, when I worked as the Regional Head for Africa for the Turner Broadcasting, then CNN's parent company, I came into contact with several African journalists and newsrooms.

I witnessed at firsthand the extreme hardship and many challenges faced by the African journalists. With the exception of a few, most had nothing but pen and paper as their working tools. Apart from the physical deprivation, the journalists risked their lifes and were regularly thrown into jail, some lost their lives just for telling the story of their community and in some instances just disappeared never to be found.

Every once in a while, when the story became “juicy”, better resourced foreign journalists would parachute into the African countries, exploit the knowledge and expertise of the local journalist and take sole credit for the output.

It appeared the world was unaware or unconcerned about this state of affairs. The African journalist was an endangered species. Parents dissuaded their children from taking up the profession.

I met and became friends with journalists who would tell me of the difficulties they faced trying to get information from their own governments, of nights spent in jail for some imaginary offence caused to some politician, of the inability to get their stories out for lack of a taxi fare or a telephone.

The lot of the African journalists was one of a poorly paid job and little gratification for the hard work. This was very different from my world of journalists then, which was the CNN Newsroom. I decided something ought to be done to accord some recognition to the work of these journalists on the continent.

I started a conversation with my colleague Gary Streiker, at the time, the CNN Nairobi Bureau Chief, the late esteemed photographer Mohamed Amin of Kenya, and the late Esom Alintah, then Secretary General of the African Business Roundtable who gave the initial seed money to start the preparations for the project.

The objective was simple: Reward good story telling on the continent of Africa and Create Confidence and Respect for journalists in Africa. I was lucky to receive enthusiastic support from those I approached with the idea including my then employers. We believed that a credible awards/recognition system would benefit Africa by encouraging, promoting and recognising excellence in African journalism.

We also came to the conclusion that CNN’s media leadership would be mutually beneficial to Africa and to CNN itself. Several blue chip African companies that I approached about this initiative were happy to join and some, like the IPP Group Tanzania, have been with the Awards since its inception.

Others, like South African Airways, Global Media Alliance and Coca Cola were sponsors for several years. The Awards was rebranded about 10 years ago to the CNNMultichoice Awards when the South African pay-TV pioneer, Multichoice brought in extra support, having been pioneer sponsors right from the start.

Several outstanding African editors have given their time freely as judges of this august event including Elizabeth Ohene, Joel Kibazo, Kaye Whiteman and Phil Molefe.

I must acknowledge and reiterate the immense energy and time my former boss at CNN, Maggie Eales, brought to this project. Her passion to make the lot of the African journalist better is partly the reason we celebrate 20 years of the AJA.

Though not African, she identified passionately with the objectives we set ourselves. The narrative of journalism in Africa has changed from the 1990s; new technology has transformed the landscape and the working tools are much improved, there are much fewer one party dictatorial states, journalists have more freedom to do their work and there is more legal protection; there is more private ownership of media and this has led to a more competitive industry and less reliance on government.

However some of the democratically elected governments would still much rather control the media and have very low tolerance levels and are averse to any criticism. Many of the countries have struggling economies and the African journalist is still very poorly paid and poorly regarded in their societies.

As a result Corruption and the cancer of “brown envelopes and soli” are creeping within the industry in several countries. Lack of attention to detail and proper governance is becoming endemic.

Thus, in some countries, the public are beginning to question the relevance of having open and free media. We need to check the excesses and make sure that the gains that were fought for are not reversed.

I believe there has been much improvement and we can be justifiably proud of our efforts, however the task that we set ourselves 20 years ago is not yet done.

Therefore, it is important that the organisers and the various stakeholders keep these Awards going so the next generation of African griots will be encouraged to continue the struggle to bring dignity, honour and credibility to our people.