Media personality JANET MBUGUA explains why August feels unbearably heavy for Kenyans - “So much death and destruction.”

  

Sunday, August 30, 2026 – Veteran Kenyan media personality Janet Mbugua has opened up about why August often feels like a heavy month.

In a post shared on Instagram on Sunday, August 30, 2026, Janet pointed to the deaths of public figures, including country music legend Dolly Parton and voice actor Peter Cullen, whose portrayal of Optimus Prime shaped her childhood.

She also recalled painful historical events, such as the August 7, 1998 US Embassy bombing in Nairobi and the 1955 killing of Emmett Till, which became a defining moment in America’s struggle against racial injustice.

“I want to talk about the weight of August. Yes, this month.

“This month, which seems to have brought with it so much death and destruction and grief in so many different ways,” she said.

August has also carried the loss of some of Kenya’s most prominent figures.

 Jomo Kenyatta, the country’s founding president, died on August 22, 1978.

Just a decade earlier, reformist leader Tom Mboya was assassinated on August 5, 1969, sparking ethnic tensions and leaving a lasting scar on the nation.

The outspoken cleric Bishop Alexander Muge perished in a suspicious road accident on August 14, 1990, while veteran politician Masinde Muliro collapsed and died at Nairobi Airport on August 14, 1992, only months before Kenya’s first multi‑party elections.

Kenya's eighth Vice President Kijana Wamalwa passed away on August 23, 2003, while democracy champion Martin Shikuku died on August 22, 2012, remembered as the “People’s Watchman.”

While acknowledging these memories, Janet stressed that there is no scientific proof August is worse than other months.

Instead, she highlighted the “availability heuristic,” a psychological concept explaining how the mind links events that come easily to memory.

“When you’ve already associated a month with grief, every new loss lands and feels like confirmation, even when the math doesn’t necessarily back it up,” she explained.

She also spoke about anniversary grief and the “weight of the ballot,” noting that Kenya’s recent elections held in August have often been marred by violence and corruption.

“The last two elections have been held in August, and we do not have, maybe other than 2002, a recognition or realisation of an election that has not been marred by death and pain and corruption,” she said.

 “The power in knowing that it’s not necessarily a pattern backed by science makes me feel like I can move forward with hope,” she concluded.

The Kenyan DAILY POST.