Jacqueline Kubania, Author at Debunk Media

Jacqueline Kubania

Jacqueline is an award-winning journalist and communications practitioner with a combined nine years’ experience in local and international newsrooms and the non-profit sector. She is a Chevening scholar and was the 2015 Kenyan winner of the David Astor Journalism Awards Trust. She has previously worked for Nation Media Group as a senior reporter, and has also reported for The Guardian in the UK and City Press in South Africa. She holds an MSc in Practising Sustainable Development from Royal Holloway, University of London. Jacqueline currently lives in Nairobi and works as a communications consultant and freelance journalist. Her favourite subject is people, in all their layers and complexities. She is a feminist and a supporter of social justice. She hopes to one day do a food tour of West Africa. Talk to her about books, cats, or travel.

LATEST

Abortions Are Happening. They Will Happen. Nobody Should Go To Prison For It.

Jacqueline Kubania

If you’re reading this, and you text the group chat asking where to get a safe abortion, chances are that someone will know. You’ll get recommendations about specific clinics or doctors who offer the service, as long as you can pay for it. Perhaps these recommendations will come from your friends’ personal experiences, because they too have had an abortion, and they’re sharing where they got the best care.

The great digital detox? You don’t need it.

Jacqueline Kubania

I am growing a bunch of vegetables on my balcony. They share a big horizontal ceramic planter; onions and tomatoes and spinach and cabbage and lettuce growing side by side with varying degrees of success. Co-planting, they call it, and it’s supposed to be good for soil health and pest control. Four weeks in, the onions have aphids, the spinach and cabbage appear stunted and the tomatoes wilt every noon under the merciless glare of the Nairobi sun.

Journalism Is Changing, But Stories Are Forever

Jacqueline Kubania

Over the weekend, I watched The Voice of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian film about five year old Hind, who spent hours on the phone with emergency workers begging them to come rescue her after the car she and her family were traveling in was attacked by the Israeli army. Hind was the sole survivor. Stuck in the car with the bodies of her family members, she stays on the phone with workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society begging for help as they try to get permission from Israeli authorities to secure a safe route for ambulance operators to reach her.

Kawira Mwangaza Is Paying for the Sin of Being a Woman

Jacqueline Kubania

Growing up in a deeply patriarchal society does something to you. You come to expect violence, either the explicit physical kind that leaves women dead, or the more subtle emotional and psychological kind that takes a lifetime to undo.

We Are Who We Are. Not Lazy. Not Unmotivated. Not Unintelligent.

Jacqueline Kubania

Life these days seems to run on relentless pressure for self-improvement. The general message is that we need to do more. This is how you can be more productive at work. Here are some tips to get the most out of your work out. Are you sure that your self-care is working? Optimise your meals. Optimise your sleep. Optimise your friendships. Buy the latest eye cream, but only if you will also buy this serum because one doesn’t work without the other. Invest your money, but no, not like that. This fund is better, those people are cons. Pop multivitamins now that you’re 30, or your body and brain will turn into mush as you watch …

The Thing About Kids

Jacqueline Kubania

I don’t have children but I spend a lot of time around them because most of my friends are parents. I find that if you want to continue a friendship with people with children, then you have to learn how to enjoy the company of children because more often than not, children will be the loud, chaotic, messy third wheels to your hangouts. That’s how friendships work. The best ones change and evolve and adapt to circumstances. They demand generosity and grace, which they give back in equal measure. And they allow you to experience things that you would never otherwise experience, like being tasked with entertaining two little girls on a Saturday morning.

Allow Yourself To Be Bad At Things

Jacqueline Kubania

I was only two days in, too early in the game for me to land a jab with any precision, let alone successfully block any attacks. Giving up this early would mean I didn’t really have to suffer the indignity of failure because I wouldn’t have given boxing any real chance. I could then tick it off my list as one more thing that’s “just not for me”. Like swimming. Or learning French. Or what sometimes I want to do with writing.

You Split (the bill), You Lose…

Jacqueline Kubania

There’s this expectation placed upon women that if they don’t want to be labelled a gold digger (assuming that there is gold to dig in the first place), if they want to be respected as equal partners, then one of the things they should do is take on half of the financial responsibility in a relationship. If they’re dating, this means going Dutch on dates and splitting vacation expenses halfway. If they are married/cohabiting, then this would be going half on rent and utilities and groceries and all other things that are necessary to build a functional life.

I Have Always Been A Cat Person

Jacqueline Kubania

Perhaps that is why we cat lovers fall over ourselves to please them, because we are so enchanted by these self-assured creatures that are so unlike us. They have none of our insecurities or uncertainties, they know they can never fail. Imagine moving through the world with the knowledge that you could never fail. Imagine the things you could do, the life you could live, the magic you could create.

Ordinary People, Living Ordinary Lives, Embracing Extraordinary Courage

Jacqueline Kubania

Last week I had breakfast with a colleague. As we exchanged pleasantries waiting for our meal, she mentioned in passing that she’d be attending a public participation meeting that could clash with our next planned meeting. It turns out that she is an active participant in her neighbourhood’s local resident association, and she has been joining forces with others to oppose the runaway illegal construction projects mushrooming in the area.