Why Jackie Matubia left a good London life for one in Kawangware before fame

Actress Jackie Matubia has been around long enough to have appeared in several Kenyan films. Her breakthrough came a decade ago when she appeared on the once-popular TV show Tahidi High. Here are a few facts you might not know about her. 

I joined Tahidi High when I was barely 18. I had just finished my KCSE exams when I got the call to join the show. I started as an extra before I became a main character.

Before I sat my final exams, the Tahidi crew had visited our school and when they asked who would speak on behalf of the students, the students shouted my name. My nickname in school was Jackie Celeb.

I left Tahidi because I met a man and got pregnant. At Tahidi High, no one fired you; it was you who decided when to leave.

The producer didn’t want to let me go, but I didn’t fit into the uniforms. So I left and by God’s grace, I transitioned into a TV host and then built my career into film.

I wouldn’t call my relationship with my ex Blessing Lungáho a marriage because we never really went through with it.

My first marriage with Kennedy Njogu was real and I remember telling Blessing that I didn’t want to get married, I didn’t want to walk down the aisle.

When we broke up, I was given legal advice to sue him for child support. I was very bitter, but then I realized there was no point.

One thing I don’t like about myself is that I’m too loud. (laughs).

I was a bad girl growing up, especially in high school, and I later realized it was a childhood trauma because I was raised partly by my father and partly by my mother.   They parted ways while I was still young

I still deal with rejection trauma to this day. I lived with my father in London for six years and then returned to live with my mother in Kawangware. That was a struggle

My mother fought to have me back and because I was young, and under Kenyan laws, the mother is always granted leave to stay with the child until one is 18. So coming back home and dealing with the culture shock was something else. I was so used to a good life in London, being home-schooled, feeding on red chicken, and then you came here to live in Kawangware. It was quite the opposite. From feeding on red chicken to taking milk and ugali for supper.

I lived the good life in London because my father is monied (wealthy), life was really good. Coming back my mother lived in a partitioned bedsitter, she was struggling. Because my father is wealthy, he would send me to an expensive school. I was in Lavington Primary. So I would interact with the rich kids and then go back to Kawangware where my mother lived.

That was a big culture shock to me which I struggled with which became childhood trauma. I couldn’t understand what wrong had I done to my father to allow me to come to live this kind of life. He would send me to expensive school but allow me to lead a struggling life with my mother. I never understood that they were never on good terms. To date, they don’t talk.