The exclusive interview happened in April 2014 just when Maribe was pregnant and was about to proceed on maternity leave.
“I haven’t seen you in a while, so I hear good things are coming. Come and do an interview before you go,” the president, according to Maribe, told her on phone.
Maribe, who was sharing her story with Carol Mandi during a True Love interview, said she shared the great news with her then bosses at the Royal Media Services.
However, according to the then political reporter, her bosses felt she was not fit to conduct the interview with the president at the time and wanted someone else, presumably Hussein Mohammed, to do it, even though President Kenyatta had reportedly specifically asked Maribe to do it.
“When I went to tell my boss that I had been offered the first-ever interview by the president, it was hard. Like why, you? And I remember being told that someone else would conduct the interview,” she told Mandi.
“I got angry, and I was like why, ‘is it because I’m a woman, or is it because I’m heavy and so you (the bosses) think I’m not up to the task? Why?’ It actually brought a bit of tension,” she continued.
The journalist said she then contacted the head of state and informed him that RMS had opted to send someone else instead of her to conduct the interview.
“If you are not going to do it, then, there will be no interview,” the President reportedly told Maribe on phone.
“What that did for me was it helped me get the maiden interview. I was so heavy at that point, but I was glad that someone recognised strong, abled women in a world full of sharks,” she added.
Due to Kenyatta’s persistence, Maribe was allowed to conduct the interview, but she had to tag along her colleague Hussein Mohammed for a separate interview, which clearly she was not happy with, as it emerged during the interview done with True Love and posted on Youtube last week.
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