Sheba Nyathama Hirst

Confidence Pro Max: Remembering a Brother, a Filmmaker, and a Warrior Nick’s untimely death is a devastating blow to his family, friends, and Kenya as a whole. We didn’t see it coming, even after he was diagnosed in October 2025 with hypocellular myelodysplastic syndrome (h-MDS), a rare bone marrow disorder. When we went to see him in the hospital, he possessed such positive energy, he was convinced that he would beat this. He was Rambo a "one-man army" and we all believed he could beat it, too. He never looked defeated, or depressed, even as he began to lose weight. When he shaved his head in November, he sent me a photo and asked me to call him "Michael Jordan," after the Chicago Bulls legend whose signature look was a bald head. Even in sickness, he found a reason to smile. I met Nick in 2015, before he became a filmmaker. I remember him sitting in my office wearing a suit, asking for my support to go study filmmaking in Italy. After completing his course in Italy, his first major project upon his return was the award-winning documentary Softie, directed by Sam Soko. youtu.be/L7SmShDwPSI?si… The film followed my journey as I ran for political office during the 2017 elections, and Nick was the one behind the drone shots. We became friends, and I enjoyed a front-row seat watching as he went on to document important stories. One of my favourites was his powerful 2021 BBC Africa Eye documentary, "Street Dreams." youtu.be/mum9MLYpEQY?si… He directed and filmed a group of seven homeless young men in Nairobi who formed the "Street Family Dance Crew." He embedded with them to capture their raw determination to escape poverty, police harassment, and family issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a story that feels like a distant world today; those dancers used to perform outside nightclubs in the CBD, but the city has since become a ghost town. Many bars closed down and replaced by restaurants that shut their doors by 9:00 PM. It’s a story that captured a time in Nairobi that is long gone. In 2024, Nick and I united as he covered the protests. While I participated in the demonstrations, he worked on an unnamed film and we often discussed safety tips. I was a storyteller before I was an activist, so I knew a thing or two about staying safe in the streets while documenting potentially dangerous stories. When Nick was falsely arrested in May 2025, for allegedly producing the BBC documentary, Blood Parliament - youtu.be/qz0f1yyf_eA?si…, two of the three people arrested with him were working with me. I received a call shortly after their arrest and faced the difficult task of calling my colleagues' parents to deliver the news. The arrest was hostile; they were forced to hand over their phones and passwords, and when their equipment was finally returned, it was infected with spyware. What remains hidden from the public eye after an arrest are the cold cells, the degrading police interrogations, the court arraignments, the stares, and the judgment from both friends and strangers. Sometimes even the loss of clients who don’t want to be associated with “enemies of the state.” On a personal level, the trauma of such an arrest can lead to depression, alcoholism, or insomnia. In Nick’s case, his body crumbled, a hidden disease manifested, and before we could truly understand what it was, it stole him from us. His passing is an indictment of our failed healthcare system. Good healthcare is not free. We do not have enough blood in our blood banks and patients must organize their own donors in both public and private hospitals. Furthermore, specialized medical care is so expensive and out of reach that his family and friends were in the middle of fundraising for a life-saving bone marrow transplant in India. I am glad that he was able to produce his latest work, The People Shall, last year. The documentary is a first-hand eyewitness account of the events of June 25th, 2024, when a new republic was born. In his honour, and in honour of the hundreds of thousands suffering due to poor healthcare in this country, may we take our power back. Nick was good people. He had a positive attitude toward life and brought love and laughter into every room he entered. He could lift heavier weights at the gym than people much older and bigger than him. I had the chance to lift weights with him and his co-accused friends; he was so confident that he was the only one lifting bare-chested. That was 'confidence pro-max,' and he beat us in lifting heavier weights and doing more sets. In September 2025, I woke up early to ensure my son was ready to go drone filming with Nick. My son had recently acquired his drone pilot license, and Nick had taken him under his wing as he worked on a new film - a project he was looking forward to finishing. He surprised us all with his early exit on January 7th, but we thank God we had the chance to spend time with him. As we grieve Nick’s death, may his story inspire you to leave that boring job, find your purpose, and live a life that leaves an impact. I am so grateful for Nick’s life. May God comfort his family and friends and give them strength. He will be dearly missed.

On the afternoon of January 8th 1999, a group led by @WangariMaathai attempted to plant trees at the Karura Forest gate. Before they could, men armed with pangas, clubs, whips and bows & arrows descended upon them, dispersing them violently. [thread] #DaimaGreenSpaces

URGENT APPEAL: Our friend and comrade @nickwambugu needs BLOOD and PLATELETS. ANY BLOOD GROUP ACCEPTED MP Shah Hospital's Blood Bank. Please get there ASAP if you can. At the reception, tell them the patient's name is Nick Wambugu. Share widely. 🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿 @wehaveblood

WCW Spotlight: Sheba Hirst 🎬 Meet @shebahirst, a cultural powerhouse behind Tinga Tinga Tales & @mofaya_official! As Co-Founder & Festival Director of @NBOFilmFest, she champions bold African stories to global audiences. A connector. A creator. A force in film, music & theatre.