Jacque Maribe made headlines when she interviewed President Uhuru Kenyatta after he won the 2013 general election.
The former Citizen TV senior political reporter in an interview with True Love’s Caroline Mandi, said that the president called her to interview him but all didn’t go well with her bosses.
“I was expecting and thinking immediately after we got from campaigns you get some time off and you’re like I’ve worked too hard who am I working for? let me get a baby,” she said.
Jacque added that she was new in the media industry and her bosses did not support her ambition to cover politics.
“It was my last assignment before I proceeded on my maternity leave when I got a call and I’m told “hi, haven’t been seeing you in a while so I hear good things are coming then come interview before you go”‘. He has my mobile number and it was bittersweet. It was good yes because it was a good working relationship but it was difficult because I have bosses and everybody was like, why her?
Jacque said that after sharing the good news, her bosses wanted someone else to handle it and not her.
“When I went to tell my boss I had been offered the first-ever interview by the president, it was hard. like why you? and I remember being told “its okay, that’s good someone else will do it”. I got angry and I was like why, is it because I’m a woman is it because I’m heavy and so you think I’m not up to the task…why?’ It brought a bit of tension because later I got back to the president and tell him, unfortunately, I’m not the one who’s going to do it and then he said “there’s no interview,” she said.
“It was that bad and what that did for me was getting the maiden interview and so heavy at that point and saying that I can’t do it someone else has to do it and in fact it’s a man who has to do it and him saying “no, if you’re not the one doing it then there’s going to be no interview.’
“I finally opened up and got to a realisation that wait there are people who recognises us now as strong abled women in a world full of sharks, a pack of wolves which is called politics…you do it. why does it have to be somebody else and especially a man?
Long story cut short, they both went for the interview and little did she know that was going to be her breakthrough.
“I did my part of the interview and my colleague did his and we moved on from there and I kept now doing all the subsequent interviews after that.”
Jacque has since left the mainstream media and is currently running her online political show ‘The Hot Seat’.
