Media personality Janet Mbugua has recounted being a victim of cyber-bullying while working as a news anchor.
Speaking to Word Is, the mother of two said her worst experience with bullies was when she was pregnant with her firstborn child, Huru.
At that time, Janet was reading news at Citizen TV with now State House spokesperson Hussein Mohamed.
Janet braved criticism from netizens, who attacked her for reading news while pregnant.
She said trolls said things such as, 'You look disgusting.' 'You shouldn't be on TV while pregnant.' And, 'You are wearing a dress that is suffocating your unborn child.'
"It is the worst thing and we need to make people who bully others be treated like other criminals," she said.
Janet said the public has the power to tame trolls since she had seen a few people's pages taken down because of that.
She said cyberbullying has left people feeling frustrated.
"I also tend to think haters are confused fans of people projecting something about themselves that they are not happy with," she said.
Her advice is that people should not take them too seriously.
"But we can also report them."
Being in the media for almost 20 years, Janet said the worst was when she was body-shamed for being pregnant and still working on TV.
"I pushed back and it became a conversation. I didn't take it lightly that women were abused for carrying a life," she said.
She also encouraged people to use the 'block' feature on their social media for their peace of mind.
Being in activism, Janet said she has also been abused and trolled.
"If it is bad, I report it and if I think it is best ignored, I ignore it. I have reported and also the public reported a certain case that I was the target in 2017, and it worked and the page was taken down," she said.
Janet said she is currently working on expanding her foundation, Inua Dada, as well as moderating on various platforms, where she represents Kenya.
Janet was interviewed while attending 'The What Women Want Summit', hosted by Pinky Ghelani on Friday.
The summit brought together a host of talented speakers all under one roof to talk about how women can be empowered, inspired and how they can heal themselves to show up whole for their families, for work but most importantly, for themselves.
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