Veteran journalist and media personality Janet Mbugua is making a comeback to television screens announcing that she will host a brand new weekly health show on NTV every Sunday at 6 pm starting this weekend.
Mbugua made the announcement through her social media platforms saying her decision to return with a health-focused programme was driven by deep personal passion for the subject having previously championed mental health awareness and menstrual health advocacy over the years.
“I am starting a new show this Sunday on NTV at 6 pm. I transitioned, stepped back to come back and do something I can sustain, something along the line that I am really passionate about which is health,” she said.
The show dubbed Healthy Nation will go beyond mental health conversations to examine the broader healthcare challenges facing citizens in Kenya and across the world. Mbugua said she wants to tackle issues of health justice, dignity, policy, visible diseases and those that often go unnoticed by the public and the government.
She posed a sharp question that she says inspired the programme. “How can you have a citizen who can show up and be the best version of themselves if healthcare is compromised? If almost every one of us is one incident away from needing emergency services which we cannot afford?”
The comeback comes roughly two months after Mbugua exited NTV’s Fixing the Nation show where she had been a co-host alongside other seasoned journalists for over a year. She had joined the show as a natural extension of her advocacy and active citizen work on a mainstream platform.
In her farewell statement at the time she hinted at a return saying her exit was early given that she usually commits between three and seven years to a media role. That signal has now been fulfilled sooner than many expected.
Mbugua is a seasoned news anchor author actress and gender equality advocate. She previously anchored news at Citizen TV before moving to NTV marking a career defined by a consistent commitment to using media as a tool for social change and public accountability on issues that matter to ordinary people.