[Photo credit: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya]

Reuters photographer Thomas Mukoya was named Photographer of the Year by the Media Council of Kenya for his image ‘A leap to freedom’, which he captured after riot police released teargas to disperse the #OccupyHarambeeAve demonstration in Nairobi on 25 November 2014.

Mukoya’s winning image shows a female protester breaking free after being detained during the demo.

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[Photo credit: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko]

Muyoka also recently scooped News Photographer of the Year at the Canon Kenyan Photography Awards for his coverage of the University of Nairobi riots in May 2014. And he was named Sports Photographer of the Year in the same contest for a series of images captured at the 2014 Maasai Olympics.

Mukoya, who was born in Nairobi, covers breaking news, sports and features for Reuters and has a special interest in humanitarian stories.

Reuters said in a statement: ‘He took a keen interest in photography from an early age – his earliest memory of photography is looking at newspaper pictures in 1984 from the drought ravaged Horn of Africa nation Ethiopia – and specialised in photojournalism while studying journalism in Nairobi.’

Riot policemen use batons to beat up a rioting University of Nairobi student in NairobiRiot policemen use batons to beat up a rioting University of Nairobi student in Kenya’s capital Nairobi May 20, 2014. Public university students started their protests, which were against the planned hiking of fees and lowering of maximum loans awarded to students by the Higher Education Loans Board. Police engaged the students in running battles at the main campus, according to local media 
[Photo credit: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya]