Wilbroda, real name Jacqueline Nyaminde, is not a new name to many Kenyans. For a long time, Citizen TV fans used to rush home every Thursday at 7.30 PM to watch “Papa Shirandula”. Wilbroda was loud, brass and proud of her ‘rich’ husband.
She was the third on-screen wife of the late Papa Shirandula, a controversial watchman who never let his family know his profession. To her knowledge, he worked as the boss in a very big company.
So, who is Wilbroda? What’s her real name and what does she do away from the screen?
Here is her story as told by WoK.
Wilbroda Family
Jacqueline Nyaminde is the first born in her family and was born and raised in Nairobi West. She lost her father a few years ago but her mum is still alive. The actress has 5 sisters and one brother.
Education
She attended Uhuru Gardens Primary School before joining Koru Girls High School. Later, she did a short course in film production before joining the National Theatre.
Wilbroda Career
Like many other actors in Kenya, she began at the Kenya National Theatre almost 16 years ago. They travelled to different parts of the country performing set books.
Later, she joined Safe Ghetto, a non governmental organization that educated people in the slums about HIV/AIDs. This paved the way for her role in Papa Shirandula.
One day, Mr. Bukeke (Papa Shirandula) gave someone a script and asked that they give it to Jacky. After going through the script, it reminded her of her grandmother.
The grandmother always loved complaining about a lot of things and could barely speak English yet she still insisted on speaking her own broken version of the language. Jacqueline agreed to the role and that’s how Kenyans ended up on television.
One day, while working on the set, she received a call from Wachira Waruru and got an offer to join Radio Citizen. She presented an early morning show on Citizen radio alongside Inspekta Mwala and Luchivya for a very long time.
In 2019, after a long run with Royal Media Services, she quit to join Media Max owned station Milele FM. She also quit the Papa Shirandula show.
Personal Life
People always find it difficult to differentiate between actors on screen and in real life and this is the same with Jacqueline. In fact, many people on the street refer to her as Wilbroda.
In a number of interviews, the former Papa Shirandula actor has said that when people see her, they start laughing first instead of greeting her.
Off the camera, she is an elegant, well spoken woman and a mother to one son. Once when her son was eight months old, she travelled to Mombasa and received an anonymous call that her nanny was actually breastfeeding her son.
This made her go back immediately and upon inquiry she found out the nanny was also HIV positive. Of course, she fired her, took the son to the hospital and thankfully all was well with him.
She does not consider herself a single mother because although she is not married to the father, he plays an important role in the son’s life.
Taking charge
With fame, comes many fake friends and sometimes lots of bad decisions. Celebrities want to live life on the high end. Most enjoy the fast paced life full of parties and night club and Wilbroda was not an exception.
In a 2018 Interview on K24’s “Talk Central,” she revealed that she reached a point where she had to snap and start making healthy decisions.
She said a typical day for her in the past involved waking up, going for work and then start drinking after work which was around midday till 4 PM.
On arrival home, she’d also put alcohol and some lemon slices in the bottle and start drinking. Drinking and driving was sometimes also a part of the equation.
Good news is that she stopped making excuses and started being responsible, lost a couple of friends but life goes on.
Wilbroda Marriage and Papa Shirandula Intervention
Her marriage was a tumultuous affair that was punctuated with heated arguments as she told Joyce Gituro in an interview in 2020. She was nine months pregnant into the relationship and ready to be a wife.
Nyaminde recalled how, out of the blues, her husband told her to pack her things and leave the house without their child.
It took the intervention of Papa Shirandula to calm the husband down and allow the radio presenter time to look for her own place.
“I got home from work at 4 akaniambia pack your things and go now na hauendi na mtoto na sahio ni mdogo. Actually, ule mtu alikuja akanisaidia nisitoke because nilimpigia nikilia ni late Papa. After Papa amesuluhisha ameenda, every time he would come and ask, ‘have you found a house?’ I called Papa nikamwambia nitafutie place and that is how I came to be his neighbor,” she recounted her ordeal.
She is however in talking terms with her baby daddy but only on matters centred on their child.
In a separate interview with Buzz Central, Wilbroda stated that she was partly to blame for her failed marriage. She would entertain relatives in her house all the time and this did not seem to impress her ex-husband.
“I also contributed to the breakup. I think by the time one thing that contributed to our breakup was that I was with my relatives all the time. My sisters were always at my house, I didn’t see a big deal with it until later on after we broke up, he mentioned it to his friend.
I didn’t see that. Looking at it now I am like, I contributed to their coming. I went overboard. I enjoyed their company but it cost me.
I no longer entertain visitors even my relatives. People need their personal space. It’s one of the things. You have to be mentally prepared to have friends over”, She told Cheptoek Boyo.
