Category: Profiles
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For Rasna, From the Comrades
When Debunk Media launched its op-ed section, Public Square, in October 2022, Rasna Warah was the first columnist to officially join the team. Alongside the op-eds, Rasna, now battling cancer, did more writing, but in the form of Q&As. This is how Rasna did another first for Debunk, by pioneering Debunk Speaks To, Debunk’s Q&A…
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Thank you, Rasna Warah. Aluta Continua!
There is so much to say in this sad moment but I can only profess that Rasna Warah was one of the bravest and most truthful Kenyans I have known. She stood on principle and exposed mischief within the United Nations at the cost of her job. She quit a prominent columnist role at the…
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Rasna Warah never seemed afraid
My father loved to retweet Rasna Warah. I think in her, he believed he’d found a kindred political spirit. Someone who saw all the injustice for what it was and had the courage to scream, “For crying out loud!” But my father, being the parastatal man that he was, born during colonialism and adulting through…
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Pen on in eternal power!
Although I never got to meet Rasna Warah in person, I feel like I knew her very well. This is because of her open, forthright, and provocative style of writing. I met her through her words, sentences, paragraphs, articles, tweets, and books, through which she effectively weaved and curated her thoughts and emotions. Her oeuvre…
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She never left room for ambiguity in her words
In 2017, during my second year studying International Relations at university, my sister gave me a book that would go on to reshape my perspective on my coursework. This book became my companion and reference point during countless evening debates with coursemates in the school cafeteria over masala tea, and a frequent source of citations…
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Her work says we are possible, we are worthy
Rasna Warah was a bold African writer. I purposefully don’t use the term fearless as I doubt most people are. She wrote and she shared her work, and her portfolio is something to be proud of. I hope that as she passed, she was proud and content with her work. It is something to be…
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Go well, Rasna Warah
No account in regards to Kenyan letters and writing can be credibly written in which Rasna Warah won’t feature. As one of the central markers of Kenyan Journalism, here was one whose style of commentary on issues was arresting, and will always remain original to me. When I became a journalist, Rasna Warah was not…
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I’ll never forget her empathy
I didn’t know Rasna Warah personally, but our sole interaction gave me a glimpse into her kind soul. After writing an article on my struggles with anxiety on Debunk Media’s Public Square, Rasna, as a fellow writer on the platform, expressed her compassion and understanding to me on Twitter. She went ahead to suggest I…
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Her legacy emerges through these complexities
Rasna Warah’s contributions to journalism and social discourse cannot be understated. She was fearless and deeply committed to using her voice to expose corruption, inequality, and governance and social failures. I read her work and respected and admired her for it. However, some of her views were not without controversy, as she faced criticism for…
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Rasna Warah, we speak your name
Rasna Warah’s voice was always lucid, never quivering, her resolve never wavering as she spoke in the name of justice. The loss of Rasna Warah is immense as she was an amplifier of many important voices speaking up for social justice and anti-imperialism. Rasna Warah’s spirit will live on in the voices she amplified, the…