Former Machachari actress Natasha Ngegie has opened up about the difficult experience she faced at school while balancing her education with her acting career.
Ngegie, who became widely known for playing Stella in the popular Kenyan television series, recalled being beaten and publicly humiliated by teachers because she regularly missed weekend school activities to film the show.
Speaking to Parents, Ngegie said her struggles with schools started before Machachari became a major television hit in 2010. At the time, she was already acting while still attending school, but her filming schedule clashed with weekend classes.
She said she attended two schools in 2009 and the beginning of 2010, where teachers did not understand why she needed to be away from school on weekends.
“Back in 2010, Machachari became big. But the previous year, 2009, and previous terms, I had gone to two schools. At those two schools, I used to be beaten up because I used to act over the weekend,” Ngegie recalled.
According to Ngegie, the problem arose because the schools expected students to attend classes and other activities during weekends.
Her acting commitments meant she could not always meet those requirements, as Machachari production took place over the weekend.
Ngegie said teachers sometimes punished her in front of other students, turning her absence from school into a public disciplinary matter.
“Sometimes it would be a public humiliation. Sometimes in front of parade, unafukuzwa shule unaambiwa urudi mahali umekuwa over the weekend,” she said.
The experience left Ngegie and her mother searching for a school that could accommodate the unusual demands of her life as a child actor.
Ngegie said the situation eventually reached a point where she was beaten so severely that the school sent her home.
“There was a time I was beaten up so badly, nikafukuzwa shule, then my mum went back to school to question why they would do that to me,” she said.
The incident convinced her mother that the school was not the right environment for her daughter. Ngegie recalled that her mother began searching for private schools that could accommodate her acting commitments.
The decision came at a crucial moment in her career because Machachari was about to become one of the country’s most popular television shows.
Ngegie said her mother had initially struggled to convince the schools that her daughter’s acting career was worth accommodating.
At one point, the family even considered homeschooling because of the repeated conflict between her education and filming schedule.
“It was bad during those times. At one point, we were considering homeschooling,” Ngegie said.
Her mother’s decision to transfer her eventually appeared justified when Machachari became a major hit. Ngegie said the same schools that had previously punished her for missing weekend classes later began contacting her mother.
“When Machachari hit, my mum was so excited. She used to receive a lot of phone calls from my previous school, and my mum would just stare at them and say, ‘Si mlikuwa mnanichapia mtoto?’” she recalled.
Looking back, Ngegie said moving schools became one of the most important moments of her childhood because it allowed her to continue both her education and acting career without constantly facing punishment over her work.
She described feeling validated when her mother recognised that the school environment was no longer suitable for her.
“For me to be validated, to be like, I don’t think this is a space I can learn, and for her to be like, ‘Okay, sawa basi, what are we going to do?’ That’s the best moment I’ve ever had,” she said.
