Kenneth Best

Kenneth Yakpawolo Best (born 28 October 1938) is a Liberian journalist who founded the Liberian newspaper The Daily Observer and a paper of the same name in The Gambia.

He is the nephew of Americo-Liberian journalist of Caribbean descent Albert Porte.

Biography Best was born in October 1938 in Harrisburg, St. Paul River in Montserrado County, Liberia to Americo-Liberian parents of West Indian descent. He studied at St. Patrick's Elementary School on Snapper Hill, Monrovia. He entered Booker Washington Institute in 1959, graduating with a diploma in agriculture. On 2 December 1963, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English and political science from Cuttington University (CU) after studying there since 1960. He resigned from the AACC in 1980 and returned to Liberia. Under the Presidency of Samuel Doe, the Daily Observer was subject to sustained political harassment.

The First Liberian Civil War caused Best to relocate his family by fleeing to The Gambia on 1 August 1990. In October 1994, following Yahya Jammeh's military coup, Best was expelled from Gambia, it was eventually shutdown by tax authorities on 23 August 2017 for non-compliance of its tax obligations. Best, along with several of his reporters was arrested on 21 October 1994 and detained for 36 hours, before being deported back to Liberia on 30 October 1994.

He married Mae Gene Traub on July 17, 1971. The couple have eight children, including two adopted children.

Awards

Best was named one of International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom Heroes in 2000.

Works Cultural Policy in Liberia, 1974 African Challenge, 1975 "My Fight for Press Freedom", in New African, August 1991. The Evolution of Liberia's Democracy: A Brief look at Liberia's Electoral History – 1847-2011, 2012