Former editor at the Standard Ben Ochieng Ogodo, has passed away suddenly in Nairobi at 53.

Just hours before, Ogodo was in high spirits, he had been active online, chatting with friends and sharing real-time reactions to the UEFA Champions League clash between Arsenal and Real Madrid. Those close to him say he showed no signs of serious illness.

“He was feeling slightly unwell earlier in the week but brushed it off as a mild flu,” said Rosalia Omungo, CEO of the Kenya Editors Guild, in a statement confirming his death.

“He was vibrant on Wednesday evening, posting about the football match. No one could have imagined it would be his last night.”

At around 2 a.m., Ogodo experienced sudden and severe chest pain at home. His children acted quickly, calling a cab to rush him to Mama Lucy Hospital.

On the way, they alerted their uncle, Dan Ogodo, who met them at the hospital. Tragically, doctors pronounced Ben Ogodo dead upon arrival.

“Ogodo was a towering figure in the African journalism landscape,” said Andie Kagwa, Operations Manager and a longtime colleague at the Standard.

“He was a force in science journalism, a repertoire of knowledge and leads to the best science stories. It is such a huge loss to science journalism—to Africa and to the world at large.”

For more than two decades, Ogodo dedicated his life to telling science stories that mattered—stories that highlighted innovation, climate change, health, and development across the continent.

He began his journalism career in 1996 at The East African Standard now The Standard. From September 1999 to October 2003, Ogodo moved to the paper’s investigative desk as one of the few writers for the then widely read investigative pullout, The Big Issue. After his stint at The Standard, Ogodo started working as a freelance journalist and later contributing to The Guardian (UK), BMJ, University World News, National Geographic, and Nature Medicine.

In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Reuters-IUCN Media Award for Excellence in Environmental Reporting, and in 2017, he was elected to the Executive Board of the World Federation of Science Journalists—a role he held until 2023.

He also served as the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Coordinator and Editor for the UK-based Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) for 12 and a half years and worked for the National Geographic, Nature Medicine, The Guardian (UK), The Standard Media Group (Kenya) and the British Medical Journal.

Ogodo had a Master of Arts degree in Communication and Media Studies, specialising in Development Communication, from the University of Nairobi.

“He was a giant in our profession. His passionate commitment to sharing the stories of African science with the world was unmatched. His passing leaves a gap that will not easily be filled,” said Lynne Smit, editor at Nature Africa.