Eulogizing Radio Africa Group’s Ruhila Adatia

Ruhila Adatia-Sood, a presenter for East FM and an entertainment host for Kiss TV, was one of the 68 people killed in the attack at Nairobi’s Westgate mall. But just who was Ruhila Adatia – Sood (or Ru as referred to by her colleagues)?

On her Twitter page, Ruhila Adatia-Sood described herself as a “food lover, thrill seeker and a bungee jump away from sanity.” “Always looking for my next meal,” she also says on her profile on the East FM website.

A fun-loving person, Ruhila is described on the East FM website as a “TV presenter by day and superhero in the evenings as I get you home in the traffic mess.”

She adds, with a twist of that familiar fun-loving person that she, “believes there’s not enough reality television. Farhan Akhtar (an Indian filmmaker, writer, singer TV host and actor) is my hubby, DiCaprio is my iceberg.”

A graduate of Rhodes University in Grahamstown in South Africa, she used to co-host The Rush on Metro East FM with Gupz Saund.

Ruhila was the wife of Ketan Sood, a senior acquisition and assistance specialist at the USAID mission in Nairobi.

“Ruhila was a popular radio and TV personality, who was known throughout Kenya for her passion, vibrancy, and gift for making people smile,” said Dr. Rajiv Shah, a USAID administrator, in a statement.

Ruhila married Ketan in January 2012 in what The Star on January 9 said was a three-day Swahili-themed wedding.

At the time of her death, she was 6-months pregnant with their first child.

A last born in a family of four girls, Ruhila was brought up with more than two parents with her elder sisters taking care of her and grooming her to become

In an interview published in The Star in September 2012, her three sisters, Pinky, Farah and Shina describe her as a go-getter since childhood with each calling her their ‘baby’. Born and brought up in Nairobi, they now reside in different parts of the world but their childhood memories bring back much nostalgia.

Said Farah Adatia Gomes: “Ruhila loved reading, listening to music and watching TV though she never really got to watch what she wanted as most of the time we used to bully her into watching and listening to what we wanted. She was charming and outgoing, always a leader.”

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